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While I was deleting files from a thumbdrive, I came across this video I took last June of a dust devil here at Kandahar Airfield. I happened to have my camera with me, and I happened to see it coming, and the combination of these two unlikely events resulted in the video that I've linked below.

I think the video itself is cool enough to warrant sharing, but it also has a TnT component: You see, It's the genesis of T'Pol's nickname that I mention in chapter ten of 'Command'. (padan-grazhiv, or spinning dust)

I was walking from the dining facility, deep in thought about the chapter I was writing and pondering what might make a good nickname for an adolescent T'Pol, and along comes this dust-devil...

Coincidence? I think not!

The video can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/66260835@N07/

The sheet-metal buildings lining the road are the modular housing units where some US forces (and Department of Defense civilians like me) are billeted. They are actually very nice accommodations as such things go in Afghanistan. Only four or six to a room, and a bathroom down the hall! I have a bottom bunk, which is HUGE. (It means I have a place to sit in the morning when I put my shoes on. That's my new definition of civilization.)

Anyway, enjoy!

Wow! That is a pretty great dust devil, and it came right up to you! It's also nice to see where you live and work. Thanks so much for the peak into another world!

That is a very cool video. I've never seen anything like it. I suppose even when you get the conditions for one to form you would still need the dust for it to be visible, so even if they did happen here in the UK we probably wouldn't notice.

Vulcan being Vulcan, with loads of dust and plenty of solar heating to drive convection, I bet this sort of event is well known. And tedious, and unpredictable and generally unwelcome. How logical to associate that with the restless and insatiably curious young T'Pol. It's an inspired Vulcan nickname, as well as a damned cool one from the human point of view.

Transwarp, got a few of them here in my neck of the woods.

I really don't care for that nickname (sorry) I see T'Pol as a cool slender young woman. Not flighty as a dust devil would be. She would be beautiful too. that is not how I would describe a dust devil at all.

BTW JT it is spelled peek not peak.

SB

Hey, cool vid! Had it been a sci-fi scene it could have been a visit by a strange alien life form to some colonists.

Silverbullet wrote:I really don't care for that nickname (sorry) I see T'Pol as a cool slender young woman. Not flighty as a dust devil would be. She would be beautiful too.

I see her the same way. But if you recall, the nickname applied by her peers was meant to be derogatory, not complimentary. She didn't like being called that at all.

Kevin Thomas Riley wrote:Had it been a sci-fi scene it could have been a visit by a strange alien life form to some colonists.

You mean one of those energy-beings that can take over the body of its host and use it to infiltrate human society in preparation of the arrival of their invasion fleet?

No. That's just SILLY.

By the way, KTR, exactly where DO you live..?

Transwarp wrote:

Kevin Thomas Riley wrote:Had it been a sci-fi scene it could have been a visit by a strange alien life form to some colonists.

You mean one of those energy-beings that can take over the body of its host and use it to infiltrate human society in preparation of the arrival of their invasion fleet?

No. That's just SILLY.

Oh, no! Transwarp is already possessed!

By the way, KTR, exactly where DO you live..?

Like I would reveal that now!

Nice vid! I am always very interested in Afganisthan. Friends of mine visited Afganisthan in the time when the Taliban ruled the entire country and their stories made a great impact on me. Nice to see where you live and work as well. Like KTR said, the dust devil looks a bit alien.