CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman experienced noteworthy call continuity with his iPhone 3G in Ogden, Utah, on Sunday.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)OGDEN, Utah--I love my iPhone, but usually, I try not to depend on it keeping a phone call active for that long if I'm moving around much.
But on Sunday, I had what I thought was a noteworthy session of iPhone continuity. On my Road Trip 2009 project, I was here in Ogden, Utah, nestled at the base of the Wasatch Mountains, about an hour north of Salt Lake City.
It was a stunningly beautiful day, and Ogden features hiking trails that go straight up into the canyons of these first few miles of the Wasatches. So I drove the Audi Q7 TDI clean diesel SUV I'm testing up to a parking lot at a trailhead, grabbed some gear, and headed into the hills.
On Road Trip, I'm loaded down with cool gear that I'm testing out, but on this hike, I didn't bring any of it. All I brought was my own personal iPhone 3G and an old Canon PowerShot SD1000.
From the get-go, the iPhone was operating like a champ. It was getting a full 3G signal, allowing me to load up and listen to a terrific 39-minute interview on NPR's "Fresh Air" of John Mellencamp as I walked deeper into a wonderful canyon shrouded with trees and with a slightly ascending trail alongside a small, beautiful creek.
All the while, the iPhone kept the full 3G signal, and even when I had been in the forest for 20 minutes or so, the device was still seamlessly playing back "Fresh Air."
To be sure, the orientation of the canyon trail was a big player here. These mountains are on top of Ogden, a wide, flat city. And so I had easy, line-of-sight access to the 3G signal AT&T was putting out. Still, I've never had that good a signal that deep into a forest before, and I've been on plenty of such trails within sight of San Francisco.
Finally, it was time to head back, though, and as I did, I made a phone call. I was still in the forest, so I didn't really expect it to work, but it went right through. I started having my conversation. I emerged from the woods to a glorious vista of city below and mountains behind, and the signal was strong. Eventually, I made it back to the Q7, all the while still talking on the phone, and got into the car.
I was using my regular iPhone headphones, but when I turned on the engine and removed the headset, the call shifted over, without my having had to do anything, to the Q7's built-in hands-free Bluetooth phone integration. I kept on talking as I drove to my hotel.
When I got there, I turned the car off, put the headset back in, and the call was still active. Again, without my having to do anything. I grabbed my stuff, walked into my hotel, and went up the staircase. Eventually, a few twists and turns through a long hallway later, I opened the door to my room and put my things down. Except the phone. I was still on my call.
Amazing.
And why is it amazing? I mean, after all, it's just several systems doing what they're supposed to, right? Well, that's just it. In my past experience, I would never have predicted that this phone call could continue, from when I first dialed it to when I got to my room, without losing the signal at least once or probably twice.
So what's the lesson? Maybe, despite constantly being let down by it, I should have more faith in technology. It's not often that everything works the way it's supposed to, but when it does, it's actually pretty cool.
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
A MUTE, or multiple threat emitter simulator, which is designed to throw up electronic challenges to pilots attempting bombing missions at the Utah Test & Training Range.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)DUGWAY, Utah--"We train warriors and test weapons."
That's how Col. Jeff Snell, the commander of the 388th Range Squadron, which operates the gargantuan Utah Test & Training Range (UTTR), summed up the main mission of his command.
I had spent the day visiting part of UTTR's Maryland-size facilities, and discovered that Snell's words were a very succinct way of explaining what really goes on at the range: Air Force pilots fly in there in screaming-fast aircraft to run bombing training missions, often in advance of deployments to either Iraq or Afghanistan, and, less frequently, the Air Force uses the facility to test out various weapons systems.
Unless you knew it was there, you wouldn't know it was there. There is so much desert in northwest Utah, much of it with small, Afghanistan-like mountains, that except in very rare cases, the public never goes anywhere near UTTR. And that means that pilots flying missions there have almost unfettered scope for firing away at their targets, often with live bombs or missiles.
Indeed, unlike other bombing ranges around the country, all of which limit the direction in which missiles can be fired, UTTR offers the Air Force no such limitations. Instead, the property is so big that in most cases, there is nothing to stop pilots from firing any which way they please.
As part of my Road Trip 2009 project, I was given a tour of part of UTTR by Maj. David Dunklee, the detachment commander there. He explained that his team--mainly made up of civilians--have four main tasks: setting up and refurbishing targets; photographing missions, with centimeter accuracy; challenging pilots on missions with all manner of electronic threats in attempts to make the missions as realistic as possible; and basic infrastructure management.
While the first and the last of those duties are probably the most time-consuming, the most complex parts are the middle two: photography and challenging pilots during their missions.
The point of the photography component is to record every last bit of data about each and every mission that is run at UTTR, and that's a big number. According to Snell, there are about 15,000 sorties a year at UTTR, most of which are training runs. Pilots will fly all kinds of aircraft there, including the politically controversial F-22, B-1s, B-2s, F-15Es, and others.
Scattered around UTTR are small white domes called cine-theodolites. These are camera batteries in which operators are able, through very high-powered lenses, to capture imagery of elements of bombing missions, and, when combined with at least two and, ideally, three other Cine-Ts, as they're called, Dunklee's people can triangulate and create a "centimeter accuracy" record of what went on during a mission.
And that's important, because the critical part of the missions that are run at UTTR is giving decision makers, pilots and others involved in the Air Force, a way to see exactly went right and what went wrong during a mission, or with a test weapon, so that they can determine the pilot, or the weapon, are ready for prime time.
This is called "scoring" the missions, and with more than 300 targets scattered all over UTTR, it is important that Dunklee's team have infrastructure in place where and when it's needed so that every mission can be scored.
Realistic conditions
But pilots wouldn't get much out of running training bombing missions if they had free and clear access at their targets. That's why another task of the Dunklee's people is to run interference, and to, essentially, be the "bad guys," as John Bridgman, a quality assurance operator, put it. To that end, Bridgman and his colleagues are given control of systems that can transmit many different kind of threats that pilots will have to contend with as they scream over UTTR in their aircraft.
Several drones that will be used as unmanned flying targets for the pilots attempting missions at the range.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)Those threats can be anything that a pilot might encounter in actual combat: shoulder-launched missiles, surface-to-air missiles, other airplanes and so on. "We throw everything we can at them," Bridgman said, trying to simulate shooting them down.
Additionally, Bridgman's team moves its equipment around so that they can "attack" from anywhere, making it impossible for pilots to learn where the threats, of which there are at least 75 different kinds, might be coming from.
Another element of presenting pilots with realistic conditions is giving them moving targets. Already, UTTR has two autonomous tanks that are capable of pulling targets around on trailers at slow speeds. But now, the Air Force is preparing to roll out a new system, a GPS and transmitter-geared-up Ford F-350 truck that is designed to pull a target around without a driver at 55 miles an hour.
The truck cost the Air Force more than $100,000, Dunklee estimated, so it's crucial that pilots not hit it. But with precision weapons, and long trailers, no one is too worried about losing the pricey vehicle to a rogue bomb. Rather, they hope, pilots will hit the inexpensive targets placed on the trailer.
At UTTR, there are other target scenarios going on than just pilots firing directly at targets. Those types of missions are intended mainly as training for the pilots. But there are also test of weapons systems such as cruise missiles. In that case, pilots of bombers like a B-52 will fly into UTTR and fire such a missile, which, in an attempt to simulate the up to four hours of flight time it might have in combat, will proceed to "spaghetti" overhead until finally zeroing on its target.
Back at Mission Control
The command center for UTTR is at Hill Air Force Base, which is north of Salt Lake City and about a two-hour drive from UTTR. There, Snell and his team, as well as any of a wide range of "customers," including personnel from the Air Force, other military services, the Defense Department, defense contractors and others can watch the missions play out in real time, thanks to Dunklee's photography team.
The various tracking systems deployed at UTTR allow those in the command center to see very accurate and up-to-the-minute data about the missions, giving them the ability to understand precisely what is happening at any given moment and, later, to make decisions based on that information.
And while the most common mission of Snell's 388th Range Squadron is training pilots who are headed for combat, it is also to evaluate new weapons systems.
In August, then, the 388th will begin a weapons systems evaluation program (WSEP) that will last for three weeks. Personnel involved in the evaluation will begin to show up at Hill up to a couple weeks early for preparation. A WSEP, Snell said, is designed to produce an end-to-end examination of a weapons program, of everyone involved in it, and of their ability to react to conditions on the ground.
All told, given how many people are involved, both at UTTR and at Hill, how many bombs are dropped annually and how many sorties are flown there, it's amazing that the Air Force is able to pull it all off without the general public even knowing it is going on in their backyard.
But that's the advantage provided by a piece of land that is protected by mountains on several sides and which is the size of the state of Maryland. And while there have certainly been deadly cases of miscalculation in airborne attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Air Force feels that those who train at UTTR are as well-prepared as a pilot can be before heading off into combat.
On June 22, Geek Gestalt will kick off Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be looking for the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
A view of Spiral Jetty, Robert Smithson's masterpiece earthwork, which is on the north side of the Great Salt Lake, about two-and-a-half hours from Salt Lake City.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)ROZEL POINT, Utah--From afar, it's hard to tell what it is. And even as you approach it, it's not clear exactly how special it is.
Yet, walking through Spiral Jetty, artist Robert Smithson's masterpiece earthwork, which juts out into the north side of the Great Salt Lake, reveals the extent of its glory.
A 1,500-foot-long spiral built in 1970, Spiral Jetty has, over the years, disappeared under higher waters on the Great Lake, only to appear again. These days, the thousands of volcanic basalt rocks that make up the piece are fully there, though they don't stick up as high out of the water as they did in the beginning.
I got a chance during my Road Trip 2009 project to be shown Spiral Jetty by Salt Lake City art historian Hikmet Loe, an expert on the piece I was put in touch with by the Dia Art Foundation, which manages Spiral Jetty. We visited it on a gorgeous day, accompanied only by a few other people and scores of soaring pelicans. For years, Loe has been giving talks on Spiral Jetty, leading tours to it and, more recently, working on a book about the earthwork.
An earthwork, according to Loe, is a large-scale artwork that is "built on the land with materials of the land, and brings consciousness to the place that you might not otherwise have because you might not go to that place if it weren't there."
In the case of Spiral Jetty, all of that is no doubt true. The piece is close to the Golden Spike National Historic Site, the spot where in 1869, the Union Pacific Railroad finally met up with the Central Pacific Railroad, forming the first Transcontinental Railroad. But if the Spiral Jetty weresn't there, it's unlikely many people would drive out to this remote spot more than two hours from Salt Lake City.
Walking out on the rocks, with your feet moving across soft salt crystals, is an exercise in beauty. Before you is the vastness of the Great Salt Lake, the Wasatch Mountains, several other mountain peaks, a huge sky, seemingly ecstatic birds, and an amazing work of art.
It's not enough to view it from above. It takes walking slowly around the arms of the spiral to get even the smallest sense of what Smithson had in mind. Yet for years, no one had even that much chance.
As Loe writes in a book chapter on the piece, "It is a permanent installation in a lake that continually covers it up, only to reveal it every few years to travelers seeking art in a desert."
Not long ago, Spiral Jetty's future became uncertain for a different reason.
In 2008, a Canadian oil and gas company called Pearl Montana Exploration and Production filed an application to do exploratory drilling in the Great Salt Lake, potentially as close as 3.5 miles from the earthwork. "The drilling itself, as well as any subsequent oil extraction," reads a note on the Spiral Jetty Web site, "could disrupt the artwork's viewshed, compromise the physical integrity of Smithson's extraordinary sculpture, upset the area's isolated character, and degrade the natural environment of the Lake."
Subsequent public outcry, however, seems to have colored the state of Utah's view of the application, and the state turned it down. And while Pearl Montana may resubmit the application, the Web site reads, for now, it has no specific plans to do so.
Building a masterpiece
Building Spiral Jetty took just six days, an amazing fact when you consider that it required 6,650 tons of earth and basalt, which were taken from nearby--though workers took pains, on Smithson's orders, to cover up and clean the site the rocks and earth were taken from. "The use of massive caterpillars and huge dump trucks, while standard equipment for the time, lent an air of antiquity to the project," Loe wrote. "In the film 'Spiral Jetty,' Smithson romanticizes the monstrous quality of the machinery by comparing them to dinosaurs such as the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
I don't know about that, but I will say that walking out on Spiral Jetty, with little more sound than that of the wind and a few birds, was a chance to take part in something worldly. It was a chance to be out in the lake, on my feet, in a way that would otherwise be very unlikely. And it was an opportunity to participate in art in a way that's not usually possible. It reminded me, in some ways, of the Grand Canyon Skywalk, another masterpiece that takes you out into something that normally you just look at from the edge.
If you're not in the Salt Lake City area, and even if you are, it's a trek to get to Spiral Jetty. But I can't think of a better way to spend a day.
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
The Union Pacific's No. 119, which on May 10, 1869, met the Central Pacific's Jupiter at Promontory Summit, Utah, joining together the new Transcontinental Railroad.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)PROMONTORY SUMMIT, Utah--On May 10, 1869, the extraordinary happened here.
After crews from the Central Pacific Railroad had started in Sacramento, Calif., and laid 690 miles of track to the east, and teams from the Union Pacific Railroad had put down 1,086 miles of track to the west of Omaha, Neb., they met on that spring day at this spot just north of the Great Salt Lake.
They completed the Transcontinental Railroad.
For the first time, trains could traverse most of the United States. The huge event was celebrated on that day when the Central Pacific's Jupiter and the Union Pacific's No. 119 were brought nose-to-nose, with a one rail gap left in the track.
Then, as a brochure from the Golden Spike National Historic Site (see video below) puts it, "After a golden spike was symbolically tapped, a final iron spike was driven to connect the railroads."
I found the site as I was on my way to visit Spiral Jetty, the world-famous earthwork by artist Robert Smithson.
"No sooner were America's first railroads operating in the 1830s than people of vision foresaw transcontinental travel by rail," the brochure reads. "The idea gained support as a national railroad system took shape. By the beginning of the Civil War, America's eastern states were linked by 31,000 miles of rail, more than in all of Europe. None of this network, however, served the area beyond the Missouri River. Until the Great American Desert and the Rockies were bridged, the vast western territories would be a part of the nation in name only."
That was the theory behind the creation of the cross-country rail network.
In 1862, an engineer named Theodore Judah had completed a survey of a route through the Sierra Nevada and got funding from tycoons in Sacramento for his new Central Pacific Railroad, the National Park Service writes. The same year, Congress gave its approval for the Central Pacific to build east and at the same time, created the Union Pacific in New York.
Work began in 1863, with the western crews battling the mountains and the eastern crews having to fight off attacks by the Sioux and the Cheyenne. But they pushed on, using eight full flatcars of material for each mile of track.
And as the crews approached the final meeting point in Utah, they began to compete to see who could lay more daily track. They had been putting down no more than 5 miles per day. But in April 1869, the Central Pacific won a $10,000 bet by laying 10 full miles in a single day, outpacing the Union Pacific's record of 8 miles.
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
As Road Trip 2009 hit 2,000 miles, CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman found himself in Terra, Utah, on the way to the Utah Test & Training Center, also the home of the Dugway Proving Grounds.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)TERRA, Utah--It seems like Road Trip 2009 has still just started, but the odometer hit 2,000 miles as I was driving through this tiny hamlet.
Terra is near the entrance to the Dugway Proving Grounds, where I was on my way to visit the Air Force's 388th Range Squadron and its Utah Test & Training Center--the largest bombing range in the country,
Since I hit 1,000 miles just a few days ago, I've done quite a few things and, obviously, covered a lot of ground in the Audi Q7 TDI clean diesel SUV I'm road-testing. From Glenwood Springs, Colo., I head south, toward Moab, Utah, and its famous Arches National Park. I also did a very long drive down into Canyonlands National Park, as well as into southern Utah and its border with Arizona where I had my jaw dropped as I encountered the otherworldly Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. I put it all together in one convenient package for your viewing pleasure.
For some reason, the odometer rolled back to 0.0 instead of 2000.0 miles. Still, this was exactly as Road Trip 2009 hit 2,000 miles.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)Later, I took a fantastic, meandering drive north toward the Great Salt Lake and ended up deep in Utah's northern desert, where I spent a day at Dugway learning how the U.S. Army works to protect against chemical and biological weapons.
After a night to digest that sobering reality, it was back to Dugway again. But before I could hit the gates--which were in sight--for my visit with the Air Force, the odometer rolled over. I always like to stop and commemorate the round number milestones, such as 1,000 miles and now, 2,000. Unfortunately, for reasons I don't yet understand but which I'm sure were fully preventable, the odometer reached 1999.9 miles and then reverted to 0.0. Still, 2,000 miles it's been. And while I'm exhausted, there are still many more miles and many more adventures to come.
This is the Audi Q7 TDI, a clean diesel vehicle, that Daniel Terdiman is road-testing on Road Trip 2009.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
Spiral Jetty, Robert Smithson's famous 1970 earthwork on the edge of the Great Salt Lake.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)ROZEL POINT, Utah--"The highest tech thing I've ever seen work out here is acar and a camera," Hikmet Loe says to me as we sit, eating cheese and crackers and apples in the middle of nowhere, just feet away from the wonderful earthwork, Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty.
The project was built here, on the edge of the Great Salt Lake, about two and a half hours from Salt Lake City, in April 1970, just as the first Earth Day happened and kicked off a (slow-moving) worldwide movement.
An earthwork, for those not familiar with the concept, is large-scale artwork that is "built on the land with materials of the land, and brings consciousness to the place that you might not otherwise have because you might not go to that place if it weren't there," said Loe, an expert on Spiral Jetty and an art historian who teaches at Westminster College in Salt Lake City.
Spiral Jetty is, perhaps, the most famous earthwork, and being here for the first time, I can see why. One might ask how powerful a jetty built of volcanic basalt could be, but to walk on it, to see the salt crystals under and by your feet, to see the broad expanse of the lake and the flocks of pelicans soaring overhead, is to understand.
I'll be posting a full story and photo gallery on it Saturday, as part of my Road Trip 2009 project. But for now, since I've got Inmarsat's BGAN satellite modem with me, I wanted to take a shot at what might be, as Loe put it, the first live-blog ever posted from here.
Stay tuned for more.
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
Several masks that have been evaluated for safety against various chemical 'agents' sit on a table at the Dugway Proving Ground. CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman visited the facility as part of his Road Trip 2009 project.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)DUGWAY, Utah--In a world where American soldiers in Afghanistan or Iraq might find themselves under attack from chemical or biological weapons, who's looking out for their safety?
The answer lies deep in the western Utah desert, at a U.S. Army facility called the Dugway Proving Ground where, among other things, groups of scientists are researching how to defend against a wide variety of potentially lethal, or at least dangerous, "agents."
"Dugway's primary mission is testing United States and Allied chemical and biological (CB) defense systems and also performing nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) contamination survivability testing of defense materiel," a fact sheet about Dugway reads. "With more than 50 years of experience, (Dugway) uses its state-of-the-art laboratories and chambers in concert with extensive field test grids to fully determine the performance characteristics of items being tested."
I visited Dugway this week as part of Road Trip 2009, and was given a tour and an explanation of both the facility's Chemical Test and Life Sciences divisions.
Notwithstanding the official explanation from the fact sheet, as Raven Reitstetter, the acting division chief of the Chemical Test Division put it to me, Dugway's primary mission is to test protective equipment against chemical and biological agents. Everyone I talked to made the point that while some such agents are stored at Dugway--generally for no longer than 90 days--the purpose of the facility is strictly defensive. In fact, Dugway is not even authorized to produce chemicals.
And while there are certainly dangerous chemicals on hand at any given time, a series of safety systems, including multiple air filters, are designed, I was told, to make the air that leaves the Chemical Test Division cleaner than the air that goes in.
Of course, given the reality that there are actual dangerous chemicals being used in the facility, the division runs monthly safety and response drills so that if there ever is an accident, everyone involved is supposed to know what to do.
Two different kinds of labs
Within the Chemical division, there are two different kinds of labs. The first is for engineering systems to evaluate protective equipment, such as respirators and uniforms. The second is for analyzing the properties of various chemicals.
I was taken into one of the protective equipment labs and shown a system in which mannequins wearing special masks are hooked up to artificial lungs and subjected to various kinds of chemical agents. The question that is trying to be answered is when does the agent break through the protection. And the idea is to test the kinds of soldiers' outfits that are as close as possible to what they would have in an actual operational environment so that any analysis has real-world significance.
"We're in constant development for improving (the equipment) and making it closer to the physiological conditions of humans wearing this type of equipment," Reitstetter said.
Similarly, another of this type of lab is set up to examine how various kinds of protective clothing hold up to different chemicals. The scientists will take small swatches of clothing material, contaminate them inside a special "cup" and see whether the chemical breaks through. And as before, the conditions are meant to be as real-world as possible, so the scientists play around with different temperatures and relative humidity combinations to see how they affect the efficacy of the swatches.
The second type of lab is for analyzing chemicals. Using gas chromatographs (GC) that can detect the presence of even single digit parts per billion of chemical agents, the GC machines are designed to, among other things, separate simulants that mimic chemical agents based on their physical and chemical properties. The idea here is to learn the signatures of individual chemicals so that those in the field can learn to look for and detect them, and know how to neutralize them.
Ultimately, the point of the labs is to be able to give soldiers an affirmative answer to their most basic query about potential chemical attacks: will they be protected?
Biotechnology
After finishing up at the Chemical Test Division, I was taken to another part of the huge Dugway grounds. Here, I met Angelo Madonna, Dugway's Biotechnology branch chief.
Madonna and Lynnette Davila, a biosurety assistant, showed me around Dugway's Life Sciences Division, where scientists do similar work as the folks in the Chemical Test Division, except on biological agents.
The logo of the Critical Reagents Program, under which the Army is attempting to create standards for testing various biological materials.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)Within the Life Sciences Division, there are four branches: Aerosol technology, weapons of mass destruction (WMD) training, compliance and methodology and biological testing and antigen production, and each has a specific purpose.
The Aerosol technology branch is responsible for all field work and field tests. The WMD training branch is designed to give first responders, like firefighters, paramedics, police and others, training on the basics of dealing with "bugs," or biological agents. The compliance and methodology branch is meant to ensure that Dugway is following the kinds of new regulations for dealing with dangerous agents that have been in place since 2005. And, lastly, the biological testing and antigen production branch is responsible for the lab testing of such agents.
Again, the point was made to me that the purpose of the facility was strictly defensive. While the Life Sciences Division goes grow some kinds of agents for testing purposes, they're defensive, I was assured.
And as with the Chemical Test Division, Madonna and his colleagues are responsible for testing protective equipment and detectors and for decontamination when there's exposure to dangerous agents.
Davila explained that the facility was set up to deal with three levels of biological agents. Biological Safety Level 1 (BSL1) equates to the kinds of normal situations one might find anywhere. BSL2 is more serious, and agents in this category might make someone sick, but there's nearly 100 percent likelihood of their recovery, if treated. But BSL3 agents are the really scary ones, the ones that can easily kill someone or make them very sick. Still, most BSL3 agents are treatable.
However, BSL4 agents are pretty much deadly to anyone exposed to them, and as a result, even the facilities at Dugway are not generally authorized to work with them. If such an agent was discovered somewhere in the West, it might be brought to Dugway, but in general, the government would want any such agent to be taken to specific facilities geared for them.
Well within the building was what is known as the bioholding room. Here, the Life Sciences Division keeps its "reference stock," everything that comes out of the lab. But as a safety measure, everything that goes in the bioholding room is tracked "cradle to grave," Madonna explained. The lab keeps codes for everything and that code follows each sample or specimen everywhere it goes.
The idea is so that anyone who needs to can account for every bit of every biological agent that comes into or is made in the building.
One of the important tasks of the Life Sciences Division is to generate non-pathogenic simulants that various military or civilian field directors need for their testing projects. Madonna said the lab produces what they need, "to their specs."
Ultimately, Madonna and his colleagues are responsible for passing the data onto what is known as the Army Evaluation Center, where they are then passed onto decision makers higher up the chain of command who determine policy based on the information they're given.
Practicing for when terrorists strike
Before I left Dugway, I was taken even further out into the vast desert to Mustang Village, a tiny mock town set up for military and civilian outfits to practice their response to terrorist attacks.
In the village are several buildings including a small hotel, an even smaller post office, and a store, all of which can be used to practice one eventuality or another. In the hotel, for example, scenario training is given on recognizing bomb or chemical or biological agent production labs and distinguishing between them and, say, a meth lab, which, while illegal, isn't all that dangerous.
Departing Dugway, I was left evermore with the impression that a lot of bad things can happen in the world these days, and that a lot of people feel deeply committed to the task of stopping those things from happening, or at least getting ready for them in case of disaster.
Yet, we know that disaster does, indeed, become reality. September 11, Hurricane Katrina, fires in Southern California and, of course, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have put tremendous numbers of Americans in harm's way, not to mention those from other countries.
The Army, then, wants its own people, and the public at large, to feel some comfort in the idea that it has put a group of seasoned professionals in charge of coming up with the data that the country's policymakers can use to guard our soldiers in the field and our civilians at home and abroad against the effects of non-conventional attacks.
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
TOOELE, Utah--The first time I tried to physically turn the page of the book I was reading on my Kindle DX, I realized the mistake and chuckled at myself.
The second time I did it, I chuckled, too. But a little bit less.
And the third time? I thought to myself that perhaps I have a problem.
Exhausted after 12 nonstop days of Road Trip 2009, I decided Wednesday evening to lie low and read a book. But rather than pull out one of the three or four actual paper books I'd brought with me, I thought I'd try, for the first time, the Amazon Kindle DX I'd also brought with me to road test.
The Kindle DX has a bigger screen than its predecessor, but still doesn't allow readers to physically turn the pages of the book they're reading. For that, one would need an actual book.
(Credit: Amazon.com)And my initial conclusion: When you try an entirely new way of doing something you've done all your life, it can really mess with your mind.
I turned the Kindle on after returning to my hotel in this little town not far from Salt Lake City, having checked online for a title that looked interesting to read. I'd settled on Christopher McDougall's "Born to Run," a nonfiction tale of a writer who went to Mexico in search of a people known as the fastest and sturdiest runners on Earth. Having already set up the Amazon account, and being connected to the Internet, I found that downloading the title was a snap. Even with no instructions, the e-book was available for reading within what seemed like a minute.
So rather than waiting, I plopped down on the bed, loaded up the book, and started to read.
And at the end of that first full page of text, that's when I discovered how hard it is to break years and years of conditioning--at the end of a page, you flip to the next one. It's just what you do. Except that on a Kindle, the paper has this hard, thick plastic feel to it. And it doesn't flip, no matter how hard you try.
Instead, you're supposed to click the "next page" button. And, it's true, that works perfectly. You click the button, and in an instant, the next page of text is there for your reading pleasure.
As I said, however, I couldn't shake the conditioning. Again and again I reached for that corner of the page, trying to flip it. Maybe it was because I was so tired. Or perhaps it was because Amazon has done a really nice job of making the digital text look like what you'd find in a real book.
I began to think that was it: While the screen is smaller than a normal paperback, it's not that much smaller, and they've chosen a font and look-and-feel that truly conjure up the sense that you've got a true book in front of you.
That sense is compounded by the leather case I've got the Kindle in, meaning that, as with a book cover, there is a left side and a right side to what I'm holding up in front of me. But here, I decided, was a tangible flaw: Given that I was holding something with two sides, it was nagging my subconscious to not have a page of text on the left side.
And then, even as I got further and further into the book, I was still trying to flip that piece of paper.
All of this, of course, is my way of saying that the Kindle DX is a really nice piece of technology. It's easy and quick to use, offers an appealing presentation of a book and, while it doesn't have access to all the titles I might like to read, it seems to have a fairly sizable library.
Before cracking open the cover of the book, as it were, I'd only seen a few Kindles in action. As a device, I don't think it's anywhere near as elegant as, say, an iPod. But functionally, it is a piece of cake, and that, ultimately, is the point, right?
Literary purists are always going to hold out for the true book they can hold on to and read in front of the fire. But for folks who want to travel light, yet have access to a number of books, or for those who aren't purists, I can see the Kindle being a fine answer.
I just wonder how long it will take me before I get used to not being able to flip that corner to the next page. Of course, that brings up another problem. When I pick up my next real book, how long will it take me to stop trying to click the "next page" button?
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
The rock formation that gives the town of Mexican Hat, Utah, its name. It is close to Monument Valley, a collection spread out over many miles and across both the Utah and Arizona state lines, of fantastic giant formations.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)MOAB, Utah--Two years ago, as I made my way through the Southwest on Road Trip 2007, I traveled through Bryce and Zion National Parks in Utah, as well as the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and Grand Canyon West, and Canyon de Chelly in Arizona. At the time, I thought that collection of otherworldly rock formations was the most incredible I'd ever see.
But now, a week-and-a-half into Road Trip 2009, which is taking me on a route to the north of where I was two years ago, I'm not sure. I spent the last two days visiting another worthy roster of outstanding natural wonders, Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and the scenic route along Highway 128 in Utah, and Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park in Utah and Arizona. And I'd have to say this visit may trump the other. But if not, then it certainly was a perfect counterpart to the earlier collection.
I had set out to visit Arches, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef National Parks, all in Utah, and three of the major parks I had missed on Road Trip 2007. But in the end, I decided to skip Capitol Reef and instead travel all the way down the eastern edge of Utah to make it to Monument Valley (see video below--but make sure your volume is set to low, as there is a lot of noise from the wind).
Monument Valley, which is close to Four Corners, where Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico all come together at 90-degree angles--or, at least, they used to--is stunning, and well-chronicled in the films of John Wayne. It features giant rock formations so big and so dominant on the horizon that you can see them from more than 20 miles away.
I wasn't, unfortunately, able to make it to the second section of Canyonlands I wanted to--I did make it to the Needles area--because I decided to spend most of Tuesday at Arches. And that is well worth it. I had been there for a couple of hours in 1993, and had always wanted to come back and see more of it. And I'm glad I did. I think it may be the most impressive of the Utah National Parks I've visited.
It seems, then, that every two years, I return to this part of the world to do a story and photo gallery on the outstanding art that Mother Nature paints on her Earth. I think this may not continue to be a tradition. But then again, I can hope. There's still plenty of ground in Utah and Arizona I've yet to cover.
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
Road Trip 2009 hit 1,000 miles in the beautiful town of Glenwood Springs, Colo.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo.--It still feels like Road Trip 2009 has just started, but I've already hit 1,000 miles. Unlike Road Trip 2008, where I hit the 1,000-mile milestone while driving along a nondescript section of forested, deep South highway, this time the odometer turned over to four figures while I was rolling slowly in the Audi Q7 TDI "clean diesel" SUV I'm road-testing down a picturesque lane full of high-priced houses with fantastic views of the Rocky Mountains.
I like to use each of the thousand-mile points along the way as an excuse to blog about what has happened on Road Trip since the last such point. I suppose it's kind of arbitrary, and perhaps on my next trip I could just as well blog about where I'm at when I hit 843 miles, 1,843 miles, 2,843 miles and so on. But I'm a fan of round numbers; what can I do?
The odometer rolls over to 1,000 miles on the Audi Q7 TDI that CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman is driving around on Road Trip 2009.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)On Road Trip 2009, the first thousand miles has certainly been full of interesting stops, with a lot of variety.
I began by visiting the Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colo., and learning about founder Amory Lovins' highly-efficient house in that high Rockies town. The house, which focuses on finding ways to reduce power consumption, produces more renewable energy than it uses, allowing it to feed electricity back into the grid. Also, because of its use of a greenhouse, it features banana trees that can even produce fruit at over 8,000 feet of altitude.
I also visited Boulder, Colo., and among other things, I talked to the folks at Transition Boulder County, a nonprofit focusing on how to help local communities figure out how to thrive in what they say is a not-too-distant future in which the world has passed peak oil production.
In Boulder, I also talked to a scientist at the University of Colorado who is spearheading a nearly half-billion dollar project to investigate what happened to Mars' atmosphere in an attempt to find out if the Red Planet once was able to support life.
Then I moved on to Colorado Springs, where I spent several days doing a number of things.
First, I arrived at the United States Air Force Academy for a day witnessing the in-processing of the class of 2013, a group of 1,376 new basic cadets who are willing to endure four years of hard work and at least a year of humiliation at the hands of their older classmates for the chance to serve in the "Long Blue Line."
The next day, I had a very rare opportunity to visit Cheyenne Mountain, the underground facility also known as "America's Fortress," where NORAD and many other arms of the U.S. defense and military community maintain command centers and other facilities. The focus of my visit, however, was on the infrastructure of Cheyenne Mountain.
And then, before I left Colorado Springs, I returned to the Air Force Academy to watch dozens of firemen (and women) compete in the Firefighter Combat Challenge, a nationwide tour that pits teams against each other in a bid to show who is the strongest, fastest, and best at the many tasks these brave public servants have to perform on a daily basis.
Now I'm already well on my way to the next thousand miles. Where will I be the next time those three zeroes show up on the odometer? Only time will tell.
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
