Alice had been looking over his [the Mad Hatter] shoulder with some curiosity. `What a funny watch!' she remarked. `It tells the day of the month, and doesn't tell what o'clock it is!'
`Why should it?' muttered the Hatter. `Does your watch tell you what year it is?'
`Of course not,' Alice replied very readily: `but that's because it stays the same year for such a long time together.'
`Which is just the case with mine,' said the Hatter.
Alice felt dreadfully puzzled. The Hatter's remark seemed to have no sort of meaning in it, and yet it was certainly English. `I don't quite understand you,' she said, as politely as she could.

Because the ISS and SuitSat share similar orbits, predictions for one will serve for the other. Observers in the United States will find that SuitSat passes overhead once or twice a day—usually between midnight and 4 o'clock in the morning. At that time of day, SuitSat and the ISS will be in Earth's shadow and, thus, too dark to see with the naked eye. You'll need a radio to detect them.

SuitSat transmits for 30 seconds, pauses for 30 seconds, and then repeats. "This is SuitSat-1, RS0RS," the transmission begins, followed by a prerecorded greeting in five languages. The greeting contains "special words" in English, French, Japanese, Russian, German and Spanish for students to record and decipher.
Then, SuitSat’s voice synthesizer will tell you its temperature, battery power, and the mission elapsed time. But you’d better listen fast, because Bauer expects SuitSat's batteries to last only 2 to 4 days. After that, SuitSat will begin a slow silent spiral into Earth's atmosphere. Weeks or months later, no one knows exactly when, it will become a brilliant fireball over some part of Earth—a fitting end for a trailblazer.

The competetors of The Last Desert race across Antartica have completed two of three stages of the competition.

From Punta Arenas in Chile, the participants made their way to King George Island via a small aircraft. Upon arrival, they boarded a vessel or "floating hotel" that will be used as the ground refuge for seven days. The three stages are to be run in three separate locations which have been chosen taking into consideration safety, the environment, diversity and the landscape. Competitors will be transferred by Zodiacs in the morning and evening. The stages will be made easier by the 24 hours of sunlight during Antarctica's summer.

The first stage took place on King George Island, the largest of the South Shetland Islands. Russia, China, Korea, Poland, Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina have all built research stations here. The numerous international research stations on this island include the Polish Arctowski Station and the Brazilian Ferraz Station in Admiralty Bay and on the western side the Russian, Chilean, Chinese, Korean, and Uruguayan stations.

The second stage was on Deception Island. Long ago, volcanic pressure on Deception Island resulted in a tremendous eruption that caused the island's peak to explode. The resulting caldera flooded with seawater, creating the unique landmass that played host to the second stage. Thousands of Chinstrap Penguins inhabit the volcanic slopes of the island, along with nesting Pintado Petrels and Antarctic Terns.

Nestled among the South Shetland Islands, Deception Island is easily recognized on a map by its horseshoe shape. Its collapsed volcanic caldera is breached at Neptune's Bellows and makes for one of the world's safest natural harbors, despite the volcano's periodic eruptions. Ships enter the relatively calm waters of Port Forster (12km/7.5mi wide) through the caldera's breach that is surrounded by snow-covered hills that reach 580m (1900ft). The island has an interesting history - it was a base for several early exploratory missions - and is still a disputed territory between the Argentineans and the British, however nowadays they seem to get along.

The volcano is still very active and its eruptions have caused evacuations and considerable damage to the stations there (during the 1920-21 whaling season the harbor water boiled and stripped the paint off the ships' hulls). The most recent eruption was in 1991-92.

Part of what brings ships to the island is that the volcanic activity thermally heats the waters of Pendulum Cove (so-called because of the British pendulum and magnetism experiments held there last century) and you can take a dip. You do have to be careful, however, because if you move even a meter from the warm water you might find your skin blistering from a near-boiling patch or goose-bumping from an unheated patch. There are large colonies of chinstrap penguins on the exterior coast, but few marine animals enter the harbor because there are numerous volcanic vents that heat the water to several degrees above the sea surrounding the island.

The final stage of the Last Desert will be held on Hope Bay (on the tip of the Antarctic peninsula): This location is close to the Argentine base station named "Esperanza." Hope Bay lies in the Antarctic Sound often called "Iceberg Alley" providing excellent opportunities to see extraordinary icebergs. There are remains of an expedition hut from a Swedish expedition that wintered there in 1903. The Argentine Esperanza Research Station, Adelie penguins and snowy sheathbills are other highlights.

We have been following Matthew Chapman during his preparation for this, the premier event for the Racing the Planet Series. He makes the following comments on the eve of their departure for the first stage:

Matthew Chapman, Australia January 26, 4:15pm

Finally this entry is coming to you from Antarctica! After yesterday`s frustrating weather which saw us grounded in Punta Arenas, we were worried we might never get here. After a successful takeoff from Punta Arenas airport at 9am this morning, we enjoyed a spectacular three hour flight down to King George Island in Antarctica on a 50 seater charter plane. Snow covered mountains, iceflows and even icebergs were all clearly visible during the flight. It was incredibly exciting moment for all us when we first spotted the huge ice-cliffs of Antarctica and then when the plane touched down on Antarctica. After a short walk along King George Island past the Chilean Base Station, we were ferried by inflatable zodiac rafts to our waiting boat. The first penguins were spotted along the way The boat is a place that we are all going to grow very fond of. Its centrally heated and has lots of luxuries that we have not yet encountered in any of the three previous deserts, including comfortable bunk beds and even our own chef. Over the past few hours, all competitors have sat down to their first meal on the boat and a comments were made whether this was the Four Deserts Series or the Four Desserts Series, such was the quality of the food. In the next hour though, we are to get the first real sense of what we really came here for - to run through the cold of Antarctica. At 4.30pm, we will be ferried on to the land and will spend about two hours breaking the rust off our legs and acclimatizing. Today will be a trial stage for everyone to test their equipment. Overnight while we sleep our boat will sail around 8 hours to the Antarctic mainland to Hope Bay where tomorrow we expect a long day, perhaps up to 80km. Final details are to be announced in the morning. Given that we are a day behind, owing to weather, we expect some very long running days in succession. Better eat up!