Wednesday, October 10, 2012

[jules' pics] to Thermopolis

Petroglyphs scribed upon the rocks by primitive cultures may still be found in many parts of the US. We spotted these in Fort Collins, last civilisation before the wild west.
let's fraternity


Over the years we have criss-crossed most of Wyoming, and now I'm pretty sure that there is nuthin' there at all. Let's Zen paradise!
Wyoming bridge and nuthin'


Because of the nuthin', the people who are travelling through it, take EVERYTHING with them.
RV

semi-truck


After Zen, kitsch is the best, and less-than-National Parks are a great place to find it. Except by some very particular definition, the little puddle at the end of the arrow painted on the rock is surely not the world's largest mineral hot spring. Nevertheless, Thermopolis is a nice location for an evening walk.
hot spring this way


At the end of the day James prays, white knuckled, for the American nation.
James and flag
...or perhaps he was just waiting for some scrumptious pizza.
pizza


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Posted By Blogger to jules' pics at 10/10/2012 08:09:00 PM

12 comments:

EliRabett said...

Too much crud on the pizza, but then again Eli is a NY guy. Red sauce, cheese and maybe a bit of peperoni.

James Annan said...

Red sauce

In civilised parts of the world, we use tomatoes :-) We've also progressed beyond the Henry Ford approach to toppings. Though I am partial to a pepperoni pizza every now and then.

Steve Bloom said...

Surprised you didn't drop by the brand new People's Glorious Computing Temple. I'm sure the NCAR folks would have been happy for the opportunity to gloat. But anyway, at least it's a somethin', although aren't you being a little unfair to the Tetons and the adjacent more likely location for the world's largest mineral hot spring?

James Annan said...

Don't think I'm on anyone's Christmas card list there. And this was strictly holiday. OTOH if anyone there wants to invite me for a visit, I could perhaps have my arm twisted :-)

Yes, WY does have quite a spectacular little bit at the edge. Interesting factoids researched in the jet-lagged early hours of this morning: Wyoming has a slightly larger area than the UK, and a population similar to that of Bristol. (And for those who don't know, Bristol is only the 11th largest urban area in the UK, with about ~1% of the total population).

EliRabett said...

Ah yes, Eli forgot you come from the land of beans on toast treats.

jules said...

Eli: You need to get out more. Once you have eaten a "western style" breakfast of a cold fried egg, a small cold sausage, salad with vinaigrette and minestrone soup, you may learn to let go and enjoy things for what they are.

...the really interesting part of the "western style" breakfast is the 2 inch thick processed white bread with jam served on the side but no knife to spread the jam. This confirms my theory that Japanese food is really only for show and that the Japanese are aliens who subsist on batteries.

jules said...

Steve: Years ago I did email a person I know in NCAR who works on similar stuff to me, to see about popping in while we were over there, but they never even replied to my email. So after that I didn't bother again, and now just enjoy the holidays as holidays.

I have visited NCAR - In fact I worked there for a few months in 1991, during the summer holidays. My Mum worked there for a number of years in the 1960s and I remember going and visiting the computers (and Mum's old friends) one time when we returned for a visit in the 1970s. James and I did also go up there one day a few years ago when it happened to be open to the public.

BTW - NCAR is in Colorado not Wyoming. It is Wyoming that is full of nuthin'. Colorado is stuffed full of stuff, by comparison.

jules said...

Then I Googed NCAR computers and found a reference to something called the "NCAR-Wyoming computer center". Perhaps that is what Stere was referring to? It seems to be in Cheyenne, Wyoming. I suppose Colorado must now be officially full to the brim, such that it is overflowing into Wyoming!

EliRabett said...

"Eli: You need to get out more. Once you have eaten a "western style" breakfast of a cold fried egg, a small cold sausage, salad with vinaigrette and minestrone soup, you may learn to let go and enjoy things for what they are."

Soggy

jules said...

Eli: See, there you are making assumptions again...

EliRabett said...

Yes, and Watts up with that is the most viewed climate science site on the web.

Nice pictures tho. Keep them coming:)

EliRabett said...

Oh, on the NCAR Wyoming thing. There are funding programs in the US called EPSCoR for states with low participation in research funding. The High Plains Computing Center was funded through that mechanism (at least partially, probably the state and industry threw some money in).

Not to diss Wyoming, but this was a way for NCAR to get access to a honey pot and for Wyoming, why they get to chow down too and the US gets another supercomputer center. What would be interesting is how many faulty slots the University throws at the program. It is clearly an opportunity for them to leverage the funding