David is the Chief Meteorologist for KSN Television and, boy, does he have a sweet setup. The KSN WeatherLab is not at the TV station, it is located in Exploration Place, a newly built, participatory science museum built partly onshore and partly on an island in the middle of the Arkansas River.
People
can wander by, watch the crew at work, chat with them if there isn't a
forecast pending or heavy weather in the area, and even be part of a sort
of "studio audience" during broadcasts.The photo to the right (David is the fellow in reading glasses running calculations on his PDA) shows maybe a third of the computer and comm gear crammed into the WeatherLab. We're talking serious geek heaven, here. Thanks to David's good offices, I was able to spend the better part of a day watching their operation. It was quite a fascinating experience.
Exploration
Place is is way too extensive for my little point-and-shoot digital
camera. I
did manage to get a sort of panoramic shot of the "Exploring
Flight and Design" exhibit. 
That shiny wall is made
up of thousands of individually suspended metal disks. Visitors can direct
propellers of various types at the wall to see the patterns made by the
airstream. I'll leave it up to the reader to visit the Exploration Place web
site for more information, although it doesn't really do the place
justice, either.Oh, yeah, one more thing. David recently acquired a '63 Cadillac. I think it has something to do with entering his early 40's. Herewith, I close this section of the travelogue with a "bug's eye" and "fin" view of his new chariot.
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All text and photos
Copyright © 2000
by William K. Walker
Last update: 26 June 2000