PAKET UMROH BULAN FEBRUARI MARET APRIL MEI 2018

Ayo Dukung Indonesia di Kompetisi Luar Angkasa

Saco-Indonesia.com - Tahun ini NASA kembali menggelar kompetisi pengembangan aplikasi bertema luar angkasa International Space Apps Challenge.

Dari 21 aplikasi yang berhasil dibuat pada masa kompetisi tingkat Indonesia 20-21 April lalu, dua di antaranya terpilih mewakili Indonesia di tingkat nasional, yaitu Open TEC dan SpaceTrek.

Open TEC adalah aplikasi pendeteksi gempa yang bisa menunjukkan lokasi potensi gempa dengan menganalisis Total Electron Content (TEC) di lapisan atmosfir bagian atas.

Aplikasi yang terpilih sebagai pemenang pertama ini terinspirasi oleh Profesor Kosuke Heki dari Jepang yang menemukan cara memprediksi gempa lewat analisa TEC.

Duduk di peringkat kedua, SpaceTrek adalah aplikasi mobile yang memberikan notifikasi pada penggunanya apabila sebuah peristiwa antariksa akan terjadi di wilayah sekitar.

Dua aplikasi tersebut kini sedang bersaing melawan para pemenang dari negara-negara lain mengumpulkan voting sebanyak-banyaknya dari audiens global di situs spaceappschallenge.org. Mekanisme voting dijalankan melalui Twitter

Tertarik memberi dukungan? Laman OpenTEC yang berisikan video deskripsi aplikasi tersebut serta opsi untuk memberi suara bisa dtemukan di tautan ini. Adapun laman SpaceTrek bisa ditemukan di sini.

Nantinya, dari tanggal 13-17 Mei, dari ke-20 aplikasi teratas (lima dari masing- masing kategori) akan dipilih pemenang utama dari tiap kategori.

Pemenang akhir akan diumumkan tanggal 22 Mei mendatang di situs spaceappschallenge.org dan blog open.NASA.

Kompetisi International Space Apps Challenge diselenggarakan untuk kedua kalinya di Indonesia tahun ini. Total terdapat 125 peserta yang mendaftar untuk mengikuti penjurian tingkat nasional yang diadakan di Jakarta, Bandung, dan Surabaya.

WINAMP AKAN SEGERA TERJUAL

saco-indonesia.com, Sebuah bocoran terbaru dari orang dalam sekaligus pengembang software Winamp telah menyatakan jika Winamp akan segera terjual dalam waktu yang dekat.

sumber yang tidak ingin diketahui namanya ini telah menyebutkan jika saat ini pihak AOL sedang serius untuk membicarakan opsi penjualan Winamp ke beberapa perusahaan yang telah menunjukkan ketertarikannya pada aplikasi multimedia player Winamp ini.

Dirinya telah menyebutkan jika Winamp akan segera mengumumkan hasil proses pembelian yang sedang berlangsung ini melalui akun Twitter resmi Winamp jika kesepakatan sudah tercapai.

Namun masih belum bisa dipastikan perusahaan mana yang akan menjadi pemilik baru Winamp nantinya.

Akan tetapi, rumor sebelumnya telah menyebutkan jika Microsoft menjadi salah satu perusahaan yang berpeluang besar untuk menjadi pemilik baru Winamp nantinya.

Editor : Dian Sukmawati

TEMPAT WISATA GUNUNG BROMO

Objek wisata Gunung Bromo tentu juga sudah sering terdengar bukan ditelinga Anda, terutama Masyarakat Jawa Timur sendiri. Siapa yang tak sangka Gunung berapi yang masih dalam status aktif ini juga merupakan salah satu objek wisata yang sangat populer di kawasan Jawa Timur, Indonesia. Gunung dengan ketinggian 2.392 meter di atas permukaan laut ini telah terletak di dalam 4 kawasan yakni Pasuruan, Kab. Probolinggo, Lumajang dan Kab. Malang.

Bagi Anda yang baru pertama kali berwisata ke Gunung Bromo ini jangan heran jika Anda dibuat terkesan akan keindahan panorama alam Bromo yang begitu sangat menakjubkan. Hamparan savana hijau bersamaan dengan lautan pasir yang telah memiliki luas sekitar 10 kilometer persegi benar benar siap memukau siapa saja yang melihatnya. Gunung Bromo juga terkenal akan kawahnya yang begitu indah ketika mengeluarkan asap belerang yang relatif cukup tipis. Disekitar Gunung Bromo juga terdapat Gunung Batok, Gunung Semeru dan Gunung Penanjakan yang telah menjadi lokasi paling strategis untuk dapat melihat sunrise dari puncak Gunung Bromo.

Salah satu peristiwa yang unik di kawasan Gunung Bromo adalah tradisi adat yang bernama “Yadnya Kasada atau Kasodo” yang selalu diselenggarakan penduduk Tengger di sebuah pura yang terletak di bawah kaki Gunung Bromo Utara setiap bulan purnama. Pada saat upacara adat ini berlangsung, jumlah pengunjung yang datang bisa melonjak berlipat lipat termasuk berbagai media Nasional dan Internasional yang datang untuk meliput tradisi yang unik ini. Untuk masalah tempat penginapan Anda tidak perlu khawatir karena di kawasan Bromo sudah banyak berdiri hotel, villa dan tempat penginapan lainnya yang dapat Anda sewa.

JASA PENYEWAAN KOMPUTER MASIH BERPUTAR

Meski harga komputer personal (PC) makin terjangkau, banyak pihak yang masih membutuhkan jasa penyewaan komputer. Bisnis penyewaan PC pun juga masih lumayan. Sebuah perusahaan penyedia jasa sewa komputer masih menangguk omzet ratusan juta rupiah sebulan. Kuncinya harus fokus pada pasar tertentu, serta harus siap untuk merawat pelanggan dan komputer.

Tingginya ketergantungan pada komputer, telah membuat keberadaan produk ini seakan menjadi kebutuhan primer untuk dapat mendukung pekerjaan atau sebagai media hiburan. Apalagi, produsen komputer kian jeli untuk menciptakan berbagai produk tertentu, yang sesuai dengan kebutuhan atau kantong konsumen, sehingga makin banyak orang yang mampu membeli komputer personal.

Namun, meski banyak orang telah memiliki komputer sendiri, ternyata tidak menyurutkan bisnis penyewaan komputer personal (PC). Tengok saja, usaha penyewaan PC milik Andi Susanto. Pemilik PT Megawastu Solusindo di Jakarta ini mampu untuk menangguk omzet hingga Rp 500 juta tiap bulan. "Usaha penyewaan PC juga masih menguntungkan sampai saat ini," ujarnya.

Minat perusahaan untuk menyewa PC masih tinggi. Mereka terhindar dari biaya pembelian, biaya penggantian dan perawatan. Sementara PC juga sangat penting dan dibutuhkan terus-menerus. "Dengan menyewa, perusahaan bisa menekan pengeluaran mereka," tutur Andi.

Andi mengawali usahanya sejak 2003. Pria yang semula bekerja di sebuah media ekonomi ini tertarik menekuni bisnis penyewaan PC, karena ia banyak berhubungan dengan perbankan. "Saya melihat bank membutuhkan dukungan PC yang bagus," kata Andi.

Dalam usahanya ini, Andi pun hanya memasok PC untuk bagian trading di bank. Kesuksesannya pun juga tak lepas dari strategi untuk fokus pada target pasar dan merawat konsumennya dengan baik.

Hingga kini, Megawastu Solusindo masih konsisten menyewakan PC khusus bagi kantor-kantor bank. Mereka juga sudah mempunyai klien yang berasal dari 10 bank besar di Indonesia.

Harga sewa komputer dipatok mulai Rp 500.000 hingga Rp 1 juta per bulan. Penentuan tarif sewa juga bergantung pada spesifikasi kebutuhan PC.

Andi juga menawarkan sistem sewa dengan jangka waktu bulanan hingga tahunan. "Tapi, kami juga mempunyai kebijakan kontrak per tiga bulan supaya pemasukan lebih lancar," ujarnya.

Dalam usaha ini, menurut Andi, yang paling penting adalah melakukan perawatan PC secara rutin. Maklum, dunia perbankan membutuhkan kecepatan data dan arus informasi secara real time.

Klien biasanya menginginkan, bila terjadi kerusakan pada PC harus seminim mungkin. Karena itu, Andi juga harus selalu siap menyediakan teknisi bila terjadi kerusakan. Para teknisi pun harus memantau secara rutin kondisi PC yang selalu menyala itu.

Sekali sepekan, teknisi biasanya mengecek PC yang disewa. Mereka akan membersihkan komputer tersebut dari gangguan virus. "Saya juga harus membayar denda jika terjadi kerusakan yang melebihi perjanjian," ujar Andi.

Namun, kesuksesan dari bisnis penyewaan komputer tak hanya dengan mengandalkan klien dari perbankan. Menurut Hery Siswanto, Manajer Marketing PT Natari, banyak perusahaan membutuhkan penyewaan komputer untuk mendukung kinerja perusahaan.

Perusahaan yang terkenal ini telah menjalani bisnis penyewaan komputer sejak 2004 lalu . Hery juga mengakui, konsumennya terus bertambah hingga saat ini. "Bahkan, kami masih kewalahan dalam melayani kebutuhan klien di Jakarta," ujar Hery.

Natari biasanya telah menyewakan komputer untuk keperluan pelatihan karyawan maupun seminar. Karena mengincar pasar ini, mereka biasanya menuai banyak permintaan pada awal bulan dalam triwulan pertama setiap tahunnya.

Berbeda dengan Megawastu Solusindo, Natari menetapkan harga sewa harian. Biaya sewa komputer telah dibanderol antara Rp 80.000 hingga Rp 100.000 per unit setiap hari.

Hery bilang, perusahaan bisa mendulang omzet lebih dari Rp 100 juta per bulan. Untuk mendukung bisnisnya, Natari juga menyiapkan 500 unit komputer personal.

Hery menjelaskan, para kliennya lebih memilih menyewa PC untuk pelatihan atau seminar. Pasalnya, komputer personal lebih nyaman dipakai bila dibandingkan dengan menggunakan laptop. Selain itu, perusahaan juga ingin mengurangi risiko kecurian jika menggunakan laptop.

Ada beragam perusahaan yang menjadi klien Natari. Mulai dari perusahaan asuransi, perusahaan TI dan juga kalangan perbankan. Hery berpesan, dalam bisnis ini yang penting menjaga kepercayaan pelanggan.

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Taiwan party leader affirms eventual reunion with China

BEIJING (AP) — The head of Taiwan's Nationalists reaffirmed the party's support for eventual unification with the mainland when he met Monday with Chinese President Xi Jinping as part of continuing rapprochement between the former bitter enemies.

Nationalist Party Chairman Eric Chu, a likely presidential candidate next year, also affirmed Taiwan's desire to join the proposed Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank during the meeting in Beijing. China claims Taiwan as its own territory and doesn't want the island to join using a name that might imply it is an independent country.

Chu's comments during his meeting with Xi were carried live on Hong Kong-based broadcaster Phoenix Television.

The Nationalists were driven to Taiwan by Mao Zedong's Communists during the Chinese civil war in 1949, leading to decades of hostility between the sides. Chu, who took over as party leader in January, is the third Nationalist chairman to visit the mainland and the first since 2009.

Relations between the communist-ruled mainland and the self-governing democratic island of Taiwan began to warm in the 1990s, partly out of their common opposition to Taiwan's formal independence from China, a position advocated by the island's Democratic Progressive Party.

Despite increasingly close economic ties, the prospect of political unification has grown increasingly unpopular on Taiwan, especially with younger voters. Opposition to the Nationalists' pro-China policies was seen as a driver behind heavy local electoral defeats for the party last year that led to Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou resigning as party chairman.

William Pfaff, Critic of American Foreign Policy, Dies at 86

Mr. Pfaff was an international affairs columnist and author who found Washington’s intervention in world affairs often misguided.

Edward Chambers, Early Leader in Community Organizing, Dies at 85

A lapsed seminarian, Mr. Chambers succeeded Saul Alinsky as leader of the social justice umbrella group Industrial Areas Foundation.

Mike Phillips, Half of Kentucky’s ‘Twin Towers’ of Basketball, Dies at 59

The 6-foot-10 Phillips played alongside the 6-11 Rick Robey on the Wildcats team that won the 1978 N.C.A.A. men’s basketball title.

Ellen Turner Dies at 87; Opened Kitchen to Feed the Needy of Knoxville

Ms. Turner and her twin sister founded the Love Kitchen in 1986 in a church basement in Knoxville, Tenn., and it continues to provide clothing and meals.

Gilbert Haroche, Builder of an Economy Travel Empire, Dies at 87

Mr. Haroche was a founder of Liberty Travel, which grew from a two-man operation to the largest leisure travel operation in the United States.

Don Mankiewicz, Screenwriter in a Family Film Tradition, Dies at 93

Mr. Mankiewicz, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter for “I Want to Live!,” also wrote episodes of television shows such as “Star Trek” and “Marcus Welby, M.D.”

Rhapsody, a Lofty Literary Journal, Perused at 39,000 Feet

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Last summer at a writers’ workshop in Oregon, the novelists Anthony Doerr, Karen Russell and Elissa Schappell were chatting over cocktails when they realized they had all published work in the same magazine. It wasn’t one of the usual literary outlets, like Tin House, The Paris Review or The New Yorker. It was Rhapsody, an in-flight magazine for United Airlines.

It seemed like a weird coincidence. Then again, considering Rhapsody’s growing roster of A-list fiction writers, maybe not. Since its first issue hit plane cabins a year and a half ago, Rhapsody has published original works by literary stars like Joyce Carol Oates, Rick Moody, Amy Bloom, Emma Straub and Mr. Doerr, who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction two weeks ago.

As airlines try to distinguish their high-end service with luxuries like private sleeping chambers, showers, butler service and meals from five-star chefs, United Airlines is offering a loftier, more cerebral amenity to its first-class and business-class passengers: elegant prose by prominent novelists. There are no airport maps or disheartening lists of in-flight meal and entertainment options in Rhapsody. Instead, the magazine has published ruminative first-person travel accounts, cultural dispatches and probing essays about flight by more than 30 literary fiction writers.

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An airline might seem like an odd literary patron. But as publishers and writers look for new ways to reach readers in a shaky retail climate, many have formed corporate alliances with transit companies, including American Airlines, JetBlue and Amtrak, that provide a captive audience.

Mark Krolick, United Airlines’ managing director of marketing and product development, said the quality of the writing in Rhapsody brings a patina of sophistication to its first-class service, along with other opulent touches like mood lighting, soft music and a branded scent.

“The high-end leisure or business-class traveler has higher expectations, even in the entertainment we provide,” he said.

Some of Rhapsody’s contributing writers say they were lured by the promise of free airfare and luxury accommodations provided by United, as well as exposure to an elite audience of some two million first-class and business-class travelers.

“It’s not your normal Park Slope Community Bookstore types who read Rhapsody,” Mr. Moody, author of the 1994 novel “The Ice Storm,” who wrote an introspective, philosophical piece about traveling to the Aran Islands of Ireland for Rhapsody, said in an email. “I’m not sure I myself am in that Rhapsody demographic, but I would like them to buy my books one day.”

In addition to offering travel perks, the magazine pays well and gives writers freedom, within reason, to choose their subject matter and write with style. Certain genres of flight stories are off limits, naturally: no plane crashes or woeful tales of lost luggage or rude flight attendants, and nothing too risqué.

“We’re not going to have someone write about joining the mile-high club,” said Jordan Heller, the editor in chief of Rhapsody. “Despite those restrictions, we’ve managed to come up with a lot of high-minded literary content.”

Guiding writers toward the right idea occasionally requires some gentle prodding. When Rhapsody’s executive editor asked Ms. Russell to contribute an essay about a memorable flight experience, she first pitched a story about the time she was chaperoning a group of teenagers on a trip to Europe, and their delayed plane sat at the airport in New York for several hours while other passengers got progressively drunker.

“He pointed out that disaster flights are not what people want to read about when they’re in transit, and very diplomatically suggested that maybe people want to read something that casts air travel in a more positive light,” said Ms. Russell, whose novel “Swamplandia!” was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize.

She turned in a nostalgia-tinged essay about her first flight on a trip to Disney World when she was 6. “The Magic Kingdom was an anticlimax,” she wrote. “What ride could compare to that first flight?”

Ms. Oates also wrote about her first flight, in a tiny yellow propeller plane piloted by her father. The novelist Joyce Maynard told of the constant disappointment of never seeing her books in airport bookstores and the thrill of finally spotting a fellow plane passenger reading her novel “Labor Day.” Emily St. John Mandel, who was a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction last year, wrote about agonizing over which books to bring on a long flight.

“There’s nobody that’s looked down their noses at us as an in-flight magazine,” said Sean Manning, the magazine’s executive editor. “As big as these people are in the literary world, there’s still this untapped audience for them of luxury travelers.”

United is one of a handful of companies showcasing work by literary writers as a way to elevate their brands and engage customers. Chipotle has printed original work from writers like Toni Morrison, Jeffrey Eugenides and Barbara Kingsolver on its disposable cups and paper bags. The eyeglass company Warby Parker hosts parties for authors and sells books from 14 independent publishers in its stores.

JetBlue offers around 40 e-books from HarperCollins and Penguin Random House on its free wireless network, allowing passengers to read free samples and buy and download books. JetBlue will start offering 11 digital titles from Simon & Schuster soon. Amtrak recently forged an alliance with Penguin Random House to provide free digital samples from 28 popular titles, which passengers can buy and download over Amtrak’s admittedly spotty wireless service.

Amtrak is becoming an incubator for literary talent in its own right. Last year, it started a residency program, offering writers a free long-distance train trip and complimentary food. More than 16,000 writers applied and 24 made the cut.

Like Amtrak, Rhapsody has found that writers are eager to get onboard. On a rainy spring afternoon, Rhapsody’s editorial staff sat around a conference table discussing the June issue, which will feature an essay by the novelist Hannah Pittard and an unpublished short story by the late Elmore Leonard.

“Do you have that photo of Elmore Leonard? Can I see it?” Mr. Heller, the editor in chief, asked Rhapsody’s design director, Christos Hannides. Mr. Hannides slid it across the table and noted that they also had a photograph of cowboy spurs. “It’s very simple; it won’t take away from the literature,” he said.

Rhapsody’s office, an open space with exposed pipes and a vaulted brick ceiling, sits in Dumbo at the epicenter of literary Brooklyn, in the same converted tea warehouse as the literary journal N+1 and the digital publisher Atavist. Two of the magazine’s seven staff members hold graduate degrees in creative writing. Mr. Manning, the executive editor, has published a memoir and edited five literary anthologies.

Mr. Manning said Rhapsody was conceived from the start as a place for literary novelists to write with voice and style, and nobody had been put off that their work would live in plane cabins and airport lounges.

Still, some contributors say they wish the magazine were more widely circulated.

“I would love it if I could read it,” said Ms. Schappell, a Brooklyn-based novelist who wrote a feature story for Rhapsody’s inaugural issue. “But I never fly first class.”

Police Rethink Long Tradition on Using Force

WASHINGTON — During a training course on defending against knife attacks, a young Salt Lake City police officer asked a question: “How close can somebody get to me before I’m justified in using deadly force?”

Dennis Tueller, the instructor in that class more than three decades ago, decided to find out. In the fall of 1982, he performed a rudimentary series of tests and concluded that an armed attacker who bolted toward an officer could clear 21 feet in the time it took most officers to draw, aim and fire their weapon.

The next spring, Mr. Tueller published his findings in SWAT magazine and transformed police training in the United States. The “21-foot rule” became dogma. It has been taught in police academies around the country, accepted by courts and cited by officers to justify countless shootings, including recent episodes involving a homeless woodcarver in Seattle and a schizophrenic woman in San Francisco.

Marcel Pronovost, 84, Dies; Hall of Famer Shared in Five N.H.L. Titles

Pronovost, who played for the Red Wings, was not a prolific scorer, but he was a consummate team player with bruising checks and fearless bursts up the ice that could puncture a defense.

Top News China’s Intents Are Questioned as It Builds in Antarctica

HOBART, Tasmania — Few places seem out of reach for China’s leader, Xi Jinping, who has traveled from European capitals to obscure Pacific and Caribbean islands in pursuit of his nation’s strategic interests.

So perhaps it was not surprising when he turned up last fall in this city on the edge of the Southern Ocean to put down a long-distance marker in another faraway region, Antarctica, 2,000 miles south of this Australian port.

Standing on the deck of an icebreaker that ferries Chinese scientists from this last stop before the frozen continent, Mr. Xi pledged that China would continue to expand in one of the few places on earth that remain unexploited by humans.

He signed a five-year accord with the Australian government that allows Chinese vessels and, in the future, aircraft to resupply for fuel and food before heading south. That will help secure easier access to a region that is believed to have vast oil and mineral resources; huge quantities of high-protein sea life; and for times of possible future dire need, fresh water contained in icebergs.

It was not until 1985, about seven decades after Robert Scott and Roald Amundsen raced to the South Pole, that a team representing Beijing hoisted the Chinese flag over the nation’s first Antarctic research base, the Great Wall Station on King George Island.

But now China seems determined to catch up. As it has bolstered spending on Antarctic research, and as the early explorers, especially the United States and Australia, confront stagnant budgets, there is growing concern about its intentions.

China’s operations on the continent — it opened its fourth research station last year, chose a site for a fifth, and is investing in a second icebreaker and new ice-capable planes and helicopters — are already the fastest growing of the 52 signatories to the Antarctic Treaty. That gentlemen’s agreement reached in 1959 bans military activity on the continent and aims to preserve it as one of the world’s last wildernesses; a related pact prohibits mining.

But Mr. Xi’s visit was another sign that China is positioning itself to take advantage of the continent’s resource potential when the treaty expires in 2048 — or in the event that it is ripped up before, Chinese and Australian experts say.

“So far, our research is natural-science based, but we know there is more and more concern about resource security,” said Yang Huigen, director general of the Polar Research Institute of China, who accompanied Mr. Xi last November on his visit to Hobart and stood with him on the icebreaker, Xue Long, or Snow Dragon.

With that in mind, the polar institute recently opened a new division devoted to the study of resources, law, geopolitics and governance in Antarctica and the Arctic, Mr. Yang said.

Australia, a strategic ally of the United States that has strong economic relations with China, is watching China’s buildup in the Antarctic with a mix of gratitude — China’s presence offers support for Australia’s Antarctic science program, which is short of cash — and wariness.

“We should have no illusions about the deeper agenda — one that has not even been agreed to by Chinese scientists but is driven by Xi, and most likely his successors,” said Peter Jennings, executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and a former senior official in the Australian Department of Defense.

“This is part of a broader pattern of a mercantilist approach all around the world,” Mr. Jennings added. “A big driver of Chinese policy is to secure long-term energy supply and food supply.”

That approach was evident last month when a large Chinese agriculture enterprise announced an expansion of its fishing operations around Antarctica to catch more krill — small, protein-rich crustaceans that are abundant in Antarctic waters.

“The Antarctic is a treasure house for all human beings, and China should go there and share,” Liu Shenli, the chairman of the China National Agricultural Development Group, told China Daily, a state-owned newspaper. China would aim to fish up to two million tons of krill a year, he said, a substantial increase from what it currently harvests.

Because sovereignty over Antarctica is unclear, nations have sought to strengthen their claims over the ice-covered land by building research bases and naming geographic features. China’s fifth station will put it within reach of the six American facilities, and ahead of Australia’s three.

Chinese mappers have also given Chinese names to more than 300 sites, compared with the thousands of locations on the continent with English names.

In the unspoken competition for Antarctica’s future, scientific achievement can also translate into influence. Chinese scientists are driving to be the first to drill and recover an ice core containing tiny air bubbles that provide a record of climate change stretching as far back as 1.5 million years. It is an expensive and delicate effort at which others, including the European Union and Australia, have failed.

In a breakthrough a decade ago, European scientists extracted an ice core nearly two miles long that revealed 800,000 years of climate history. But finding an ice core going back further would allow scientists to examine a change in the earth’s climate cycles believed to have occurred 900,000 to 1.2 million years ago.

China is betting it has found the best location to drill, at an area called Dome A, or Dome Argus, the highest point on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Though it is considered one of the coldest places on the planet, with temperatures of 130 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, a Chinese expedition explored the area in 2005 and established a research station in 2009.

“The international community has drilled in lots of places, but no luck so far,” said Xiao Cunde, a member of the first party to reach the site and the deputy director of the Institute for Climate Change at the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences. “We think at Dome A we will have a straight shot at the one-million-year ice core.”

Mr. Xiao said China had already begun drilling and hoped to find what scientists are looking for in four to five years.

To support its Antarctic aspirations, China is building a sophisticated $300 million icebreaker that is expected to be ready in a few years, said Xia Limin, deputy director of the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration in Beijing. It has also bought a high-tech fixed-wing aircraft, outfitted in the United States, for taking sensitive scientific soundings from the ice.

China has chosen the site for its fifth research station at Inexpressible Island, named by a group of British explorers who were stranded at the desolate site in 1912 and survived the winter by excavating a small ice cave.

Mr. Xia said the inhospitable spot was ideal because China did not have a presence in that part of Antarctica, and because the rocky site did not have much snow, making it relatively cheap to build there.

Anne-Marie Brady, a professor of political science at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and the author of a soon-to-be-released book, “China as a Polar Great Power,” said Chinese scientists also believed they had a good chance of finding mineral and energy resources near the site.

“China is playing a long game in Antarctica and keeping other states guessing about its true intentions and interests are part of its poker hand,” she said. But she noted that China’s interest in finding minerals was presented “loud and clear to domestic audiences” as the main reason it was investing in Antarctica.

Because commercial drilling is banned, estimates of energy and mineral resources in Antarctica rely on remote sensing data and comparisons with similar geological environments elsewhere, said Millard F. Coffin, executive director of the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies in Hobart.

But the difficulty of extraction in such severe conditions and uncertainty about future commodity prices make it unlikely that China or any country would defy the ban on mining anytime soon.

Tourism, however, is already booming. Travelers from China are still a relatively small contingent in the Antarctic compared with the more than 13,000 Americans who visited in 2013, and as yet there are no licensed Chinese tour operators.

But that is about to change, said Anthony Bergin, deputy director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. “I understand very soon there will be Chinese tourists on Chinese vessels with all-Chinese crew in the Antarctic,” he said.

Joseph Lechleider, a Father of the DSL Internet Technology, Dies at 82

Mr. Lechleider helped invent DSL technology, which enabled phone companies to offer high-speed web access over their infrastructure of copper wires.

Take the Money and Run

The career criminals in genre novels don’t have money problems. If they need some, they just go out and steal it. But such financial transactions can backfire, which is what happened back in 2004 when the Texas gang in Michael

Calvin Peete, 71, a Racial Pioneer on the PGA Tour, Is Dead

With 12 tournament victories in his career, Mr. Peete was the most successful black professional golfer before Tiger Woods.

Verne Gagne, Wrestler Who Grappled Through Two Eras, Dies at 89

Gagne wrestled professionally from the late 1940s until the 1980s and was a transitional figure between the early 20th century barnstormers and the steroidal sideshows of today