MARS

I recently signed up for a subscription to an Iraq Jobs newsletter. The kids are out of high school, I've been out of work for three years, the whole point of working is to make money, and it seems that the jobs in Iraq are paying the most money. So let's take a look and see what we find.

Most jobs require prior military or government experience, not much call for computer systems programmers. Occasionally (every day) something a little odd will pop up. Today was a job as a reporter in Barstow California. Barstow is out in the middle of desert, half way between LA and Las Vegas. It's claim to fame, and why they are looking for a reporter, is that it is near an Army base. Actually it is near four military bases:

• Twenty Nine Palms
• Edwards Air Force Base
• Fort Irwin
• China Lake

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Fort Irwin is the closest and and the largest. Looking a little closer we find a place called Mars within the confines of Fort Irwin. Mars? What is this? A field of red rocks? Why is it called Mars? Is there anything there? Let's zoom in and find out. What we find is a gigantic satellite dish pointing right at us:

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According to Google's scale, the thing is 235 feet across. It's as big as a football field. Seems it is part of the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex. Another placemark for my map of Big Science.