End of classes and return to The Hague

End of Classes

I have spent most of time since last week reflecting on the fact that all the assessed parts of my classes have now finished. Just in time for summer! Just a 15,000 word dissertation assessing the potential for glacial lake outburst floods in eastern Tibet to write, before the start of August.

It was interesting presenting some early work on this project at the postgraduate conference, and in some ways justifying why I was looking into this. Someone told me that they were impressed as I was researching a topic that could directly influence people from the dangers of a geohazard and that they had chosen their topic because it was on offer and sounded cool. It amused me as most things related to glaciers 'seems cool' to me.

Truth be told, it is the environments that glaciers occur in that interest me, the mountains, the cold air, the silence, the photographs that can be taken and the total peace of mind that can be attained.

I have made no secret of the fact that I was disappointed with the grade that I was given for the presentation, I believe the marking system to be flawed and the markers staying anonymous stops discussion being possible. Fundamentally anti-science in an academic setting. Reading the handbook on the appeal process, I read between the lines, was basically don't waste your or our time. Of course, the mark for this doesn't matter as much as the feedback that I received from some of the audience members that contributed some excellent sources of new material and resources. I have found that issues that disappoint me are usually not worth worrying about and the people involved, less so.

The Hague

After a 'tour de force' of The Hague municipal government offices (due to an incorrectly addressed tax bill) I have finally sought refuge in theCentraal Station Starbucks for some much needed news updates and coffee intake. Having lunch with a friend earlier this week I commented that the bureaucracy of The Netherlands wasn't that bad once you had registered and were living here. The irony that my 'de-registering' from living in The Netherlands was processed incorrectly and had caused my municipal tax fee to be auto-sent was not lost on me as I traveled from one end of The Hague to another seeking resolution to this 'error'.

I have also found that the most amount of fun you can have is digging through mail that is still being sent your old address. It doesn't matter how thorough you are at informing banks, people, shops and any other promotional lists you will still have a ton of mail after a few months. Soooooooo much fun to be had. Sweating through the 'belastingdienst letters' (tax authority) and cursing over the missed deals from 'de Bijenkorf' (think John Lewis or Sears depending on your western culture). There was also a card that came out of the blue tugging at my past. It made me pause and think.

No daises were hurt in the making of this jacket.

Getting a few days away from Edinburgh and traveling back to The Hague has also given me some time to reflect on the last few months of work. It's amazing how some distance can give a little perspective on life events and shows exactly how much some issues are worth in the grand scheme of life. That's not to say that we should stop caring, or standing up for, what is important to ourselves.

Visiting The Hague has been interesting, much of it is how I remember, with some inconsistencies, such a shops being different, the train station renovation being finished (after ten years) and most of the people I knew (know) still being around. There are missing pieces of my life here, experiences that have adjusted my opinion, fun times that will never be recreated and people that have moved on.

It's warmer than Scotland. The people are more relaxed. Their fashion sense ranges from stylish to irreverent and at times it makes me smile, for instance the photograph above. My photography has been limited due to time constraints, and to be fair I think that I shot almost everything in The Hague during 2013. I took a couple, click to enlarge below :-)

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Quintessential Netherlands. Den Haag.

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Het Plein. Den Haag.

Satellite Imagery Comparison

As part of my M.Sc. postgraduate presentation....

The images on the left are from the satellite Landsat 5, taken in October of 1998. The images on the right were taken by the satellite Landsat 8 in October of 2015.  The image comparison shows glacial retreat and glacial lake expansion.

The image comparison below is a closer view of the glacial lake expansion and glacier retreat.

Drone Technology

The absolute bleeding edge of drone technology explained by Raffaello D'Andrea at TED (video below). Drone technology is moving at a rapid pace, so much so that the course in near ground earth observation (known as the drone course) that I recently completed feels out of date already.

Having a single rotor drone flying was impressive to see, as was the quad copper that had a failure in two of its rotors but could still fly and be controlled. Raffaello's work is focused on the creation of systems that leverage technological , scientific principles, advanced mathematics, algorithms, and the art of design in unprecedented ways, with an emphasis on advanced motion control. His hope is that these creations inspire us to rethink what role technology should have in shaping our future. The link to his site is above and is well worth checking out, the work he is doing is very impressive.

I also spotted a report on the BBC today about the length of battery times being increased from 20-30 minutes to over an hour using Hydrogen fuel cells. Intelligent Energy's range extender offers several hours of drone flight time and reduces the downtime to a couple of minutes for recharging. The increase in the length of flights will be useful for many industries, however at this point it is cost prohibitive for the hobbyist. Hydrogen is an extremely explosive gas, I worry about the first terrorist attack that uses a drone powered with hydrogen, especially in the wake of the recent attacks in Brussels.

The United States Federal Aviation Authority announced a mandatory registration process for drones in December (2015) that applies to hobbyist drones from 0.25kg and 25kg which basically means that everyone needs to register. It costs $5. and requires you to mark on your drone your unique registration number. Interestingly you have to be 13 to register which I take to mean that you have to be at least 13 now to fly a drone. The registration process only applies to recreational use at this point, but the business rules are forthcoming from the FAA.

Registering your drone with the authorities, another blow for privacy. Am sure Mr Cameron will follow suit shortly, of course the charge for registration in the UK will be about the same cost as the drone.

Icy Starts

I recently read an interesting article in the New York times titled "The benefits of getting an icy start to the day". The New York Times is the obvious daily paper to read when you live in Edinburgh. The article is written around someone that has started taking ice cold showers first thing in the morning. The author starts by having a normal shower and when finished getting washed turns the water temperature all the way down to cold (as possible). I realise to most people this sounds like madness.

The first time I read about having cold showers in the morning it was in a book called the four hour body, by Tim Ferris. His mixture of no-carbs, protein diet is mainly for weight loss and muscle building and he also discusses the merits of having a cold shower each day.

What are these merits? Well, apparently it can enhance your mood (as an anti-depressant), make you more aware, increase your circulation, reduce your stress and stimulate weight loss.

I have just completed day 8 of these cold showers. There is no doubt in my head whatsoever that it certainly makes you more aware, as soon as the cold hits you your heart rate plummets until you accept that this is happening and you start breathing again ;-) It's not an easy thing to do.

It reminds me of my field trips to Greenland. Due to the camp location you had to cross a river every morning and every afternoon on the way back. Doesn't sound to bad until you get in and the water is actually glacial meltwater and that it takes around 20-30 minutes to cross the river. You cannot feel your feet by the time you arrive at the other side. Doing this twice a day is not easy.

Back to the article in The Times, the article also included a recording of Carl Richards (the author of the article) talking about cold showers and the virtues of doing hard things first. Apparently if you do something hard first thing in the morning then you are more likely to tackle problems better during the rest of the day. I find the idea interesting.

If you don't read the article or listen to the audio, I think this is the most important take awayfrom it:

"The world is full of hard and scary things. We are at our best when we can tackle them bravely and confidently, not when we are accustomed to shying away. Set your alarm for two minutes earlier, get in the shower and before you turn it off, put it on cold. Think of it, quite literally, as stepping out of your comfort zone. It may be really hard, but just remember that most good things are."

Stance Socks

I purchased some Stance socks last year after seeing the video about their HQ building in San Clemente, California. If ever there was a way to run a company that we should aspire to it's probably this. I can almost hear the captains of (bygone) industries roll over in the grave right now. Of course 1/3 work 2/3 play sounds amazing and you wonder how they do it, how they are still expanding and growing all without someone with GIS (I checked their careers page).

Who knew socks were so interesting?

Have a look at the video anyway, it's interesting and fairly short and try their socks, they are super comfy.