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asakiyume December 22 2012, 15:10:15 UTC
I only skimmed the article, but was loving where I dipped in. There was this line:

then you can borrow the iridium phone

(it's when the author was in Antarctica...)

I thought, wow, an iridium phone. I don't even know what it is, but it sounds like it's from the future, or from science fiction. Iridium powered? Iridium emitting? I don't even know,** but cool.

**But I can find out--because, Internet.

Okay. So, boringly enough, an iridium phone is just a phone from the company Iridium Communications, which offers special satellite phone communication deals.

*sigh* I wanted it to really have to do with iridium, the element, which, Wikipedia tells me, is "a very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum family [and] the second-densest element (after osmium) and ... the most corrosion-resistant." It looks extremely boss, too.

On the other hand, this list of offerings from Iridium Communications is pretty intriguing:


... )

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sartorias December 22 2012, 16:03:09 UTC
Yes! The entire thing was cool!

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maryosmanski December 22 2012, 16:19:54 UTC
And do you know how/where to find out the schedule of "iridium flares," which are sunlight reflecting off the Iridium Company's satellites?

They only last for several seconds, so you need to know your GPS coordinates and have an accurate watch. But they are cool to see suddenly appear in the night sky.

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asakiyume December 22 2012, 16:40:10 UTC
Ahh! TOO COOL FOR WORDS!

I just posted about this at my own journal--now I have to add this to the entry.

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sartorias December 22 2012, 16:59:02 UTC
It is very cool!

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