LavaCon 2026 and the future.

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LavaCon is a conference now going on 25 years. Its always fun at conferences where folks collaborate on what the future holds. This year I drove to Charlotte NC from Duluth GA to attend. I used the Tesla in Full Self Drive. I went park-to-park without touching the wheel for over 200 miles. It's crazy. I don't think most people understand how well it works. Lots of nay-sayers still, but it really does work. Be on guard, but enjoy. I spent some of my time "driving" while conversing with Grok as part of my daydreaming. I was discussing with Grok an idea I have of building a West system (cold molded) old style barrel-back runabout maybe 20 feet long- all varnished Mahogony. Of course this boat would have an exotic 12-cylinder engine under a transparent engine hatch between the twin cockpits. We discussed the designs, available actual study plans and pre-lofted design documents for the hull. We also discussed the best engine (perhaps a BMW N73) coupled with a Velvet Dri...

Today is Saturday (I had to check my watch). I am giving a tour to 14 people off a cruise ship this morning. The price of their cruise was $30 thousand dollars a seat. They are very interested in Antarctica and they are supposedly interested in meeting someone like me and they will have many questions. I have many questions for myself too. I am having some good reflection of why I am doing this. It is definately not in the path of least resistance to have embarked on the adventure. I am reading and reflecting.

I climbed crater hill yesterday to get to some flaky equipment. It was a work out for my ankle but today it feels like it made it stronger.

The first picture is a dive hut out on the sea ice. It gives a good scale for me of how large the outside shots are. The second picture I mistook as a mumified seal in the dry valleys. The mumified seals are in the area here. They are quite a mystery of how they got to where they are. They don't rot because of the cold, dry and lack of other organisms to scavange off the remains (both baterium and larger). The third picture is at Lake Hoare in the dry valleys and finally a shot from the top of Mt 1882. I swear I heard female vocal music over my helmet intercom when we entered Taylor Valley yesterday. The converstaions are often quite good in the helo.

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LavaCon 2026 and the future.