The flights are part of "Operation Ice Bridge, " a six-year plan described as the largest ever airborne survey of ice at Earth's poles.

CNN: NASA flights will study Antarctic ice changes

It turned out to be a counteroffer from the IntercontinentalExchange (nyse: ICE - news - people ), a six-year-old Atlanta upstart, which had just finished buying the New York Board of Trade, the futures market for coffee, cotton, sugar and cocoa.

FORBES: Up From the Pits

There's a 1, 366 x 768-pixel capacitive touchscreen, a front-facing camera and a battery that Ice expects will keep the duo running for six to eight hours.

ENGADGET: Ice Computer demos modular xPC with working 9.7-inch xPad tablet, we go hands-on at CES (video)

It's the cue for effusive guide Fridjon Thorleifsson to introduce the surrounding Columbia Icefield, a 77-square-mile web of six silvery tentacles between Jasper and Banff, and the largest ice cap south of the Arctic Circle.

BBC: The perfect trip: The Canadian Rockies

Last week, more than six years and many court battles later, our class-action suit Aguilar v ICE, which included 22 New York men, women and children, was settled in Federal District Court for a million dollars.

CNN: Raided, for sleeping while Latino

It claimed six more in skeleton (revived as an Olympic sport this year) and short-track ice-skating (added in 1994).

FORBES: Magazine Article