Far from the nearest shore, a petrel skims so low over the waters of the Drake Passage that a wingtip touches the waves.

This is the second part of a series on a voyage from Ushuaia to the Antarctic Peninsula. Click here for part one: Beagle beer and friendly huskies in Ushuaia.

Our first day at sea is mellow. We make good speed, heading almost due south and averaging 12 knots, with huge albatrosses and petrels swerving and swooping alongside to keep us company.

Trying out a borrowed 300 millimeter lens keeps me busy for hours.  I try to steady myself while keeping the horizon straight and focusing on the speeding birds at the same time. Finally, I manage to snap a half-way decent shot of a petrel skimming so close to the cobalt-blue water that it’s wingtip touches the surface.

When I wander up to the bridge, the Russian crew seems thrilled by the calm weather.

“Mr. Drake is sleeping,” says Russian Captain Nikolay Parfenyuk. “He is not hungry today. Mrs. Drake is saying, hello to all of you,” the captain jokes.

The M/V Professor Molchanov anchored in still water off Dundee Island. PHOTO BY BOB BERWYN. Click on the image to browse and buy Antarctica photos from my online gallery.

The Molchanov is a Finnish-built ice-hardened vessel previously used by Russia’s polar research program. The ship is now leased to Oceanwide Expeditions for tourist expeditions on both ends of the Earth. In most conditions, the bridge is open to passengers, so we’re able watch Parfenyuk and his crew of officers plot a course through the Southern Ocean and scan the radar screen for errant icebergs.

A fin whale breaches the surface of the Drake Passage at sunset. PHOTO BY BOB BERWYN. Click on the image to browse and buy Antarctica photos in my online gallery.

The swell increases during the second night, tossing a few chairs around our cabin. Evelin Lieback, the ship’s doctor, hands out motion-sickness patches to several passengers, and a number of places remain empty in the dining room during the evening meal. Leigh and I don’t succumb to the dizziness at all. Instead, we enjoy the rocking and rolling in our comfortable berth.

By dinner the next day, it’s smooth sailing once again. Just as the kitchen crew starts serving desert, expedition leader Jan Belger says whales have been sighted. We all drop our forks and rush on deck, marveling as the gentle giants flash their dorsals and blow clouds of mist into the gold-tinted sunset. Fin whales are the second-largest cetaceans. Males in the southern hemisphere grow up to 88-feet long and weigh 70 to 80 tons.

For more information on the ecology of fin whales visit the IUCN’s Red List web site.

The Molchanov is full for the voyage, 52 passengers in all, with a large contingent of jolly Dutch. There are a few Germans, a couple of Israelis, a well-traveled couple from South Africa and some Brits. the passel of Americans includes eight from our own home state of Colorado as well as a few Midwesterners. One young traveler from California is making the most of the recession. He used  his severance package to finance a world trip, including the jaunt to Antarctica. His berth aboard the Molchanov was booked last-minute in Ushuaia at a significant discount.Two of the experienced guides are Dutch, the third is a French biologist, and our cooks are Malaysian, so the good ship is bit like a floating United Nations.

Convergence

The big milestone for this part of the trip is the Antarctic Convergence, where cold water flowing northward from Antarctica mixes with warmer water from the adjacent oceans. The turbulent upwelling is zone of high biological productivity, where phytoplankton nurtures vast swarms of krill, which in turns is food for whales and seabirds. The convergence is part of a circumpolar current — the world’s largest, carrying 130 million cubic meters of water per second, or 100 times the volume of all the world’s rivers combined. The current delineates a discrete body of water and a unique ecologic region. In 2000, the International Hydrographic Organization designated the waters south of the current as the Southern Ocean.

A daily weather map print-out on the bridge of the M/V Professor Molchanov shows a stormy low pressure system centered over the Drake Pass and the Antarctic Convergence Zone.

It’s still a productive life zone, but increased solar ultraviolet radiation through the Antarctic ozone hole in recent years has reduced phytoplankton productivity by as much as 15 percent and damaged the DNA of some fish. Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing has depleted stocks of some species unique to the area, including Patagonian and Antarctic toothfish, sold commercially as Chilean sea bass.

There are also concerns about how climate change might affect the circumpolar current, which is known to be important to regulating the world’s climate, but those potential impacts are poorly understood.

This was the question that Gabriel the hostel manager asked me a couple of days ago. When he asked me I made the sound of a wounded walrus mixed with the sound of a president that is pondering sending his country to war, something along the lines of “ooohhhhhhhhummmmmmm”. Ouch what a question.

Because the reason behind myself having dreadlocks is because it has always been in my mind to travel Africa with dreadlocks after a recently returned student from Africa back at University told me “they would love your dreadies in Africa”(I also had dreadlocks in university). From that point I always said when I travel to Africa I would have dreadlocks – sounds stupid, but that’s the reason.

Little did I know I would have to be making this decision for real. As I was walking out the door to go for a walk in the mountains the hostel receptionist excitedly tells me something about a phone call, somebody asking for me and a captain of a cruise ship, and a captain in the hostel today and tells me to check my email. So I get quite excited. But it turns out, I meet the captain, but he is a captain that lives in Australia and has come here to be a passenger on the Antarctic cruise ship.

But, totally coincidentally I check my email, and there are 3 emails from Sich, the kiwi guy I had met a couple of weeks ago who is working on the cruise ships. Well, he’s been emailing me and trying to ring me saying the hospitality people are short staffed and are probably looking for a waiter at short notice and they arrive tonight! But it’s a “6 star” cruise ship, yep not 5 star, but 6 star. In his words, “appearance is everything; the dreadies would have to come off”! So once again I made the above noise, but a little excited, buuuuttttt, nothing is guaranteed, I would have to cut the dreads off for the interview, without having anything guarantee of a job. As I’m making my wounded walrus noise, the receptionist points to my shirt “I would do ANYTHING to go to Antarctica”

So my decision, well put it one way, I just went and bought a razor and shaving cream for my facial hair, the first time in my life I have ever bought a razor. Yep, decision is made, I would chop the dags off, just for an interview. It’s all I have to go on after 3 weeks of job hunting, I have done all I can do, and have nothing to show for it except more rejection emails, this is all I have to go on, but still, nervous times. If I do get an email back and say I have an interview, I will be a whole mix of emotions, happy, excited, nervous, gutted, all put in a blender and blended on high. Waiting now for a reply to my email I sent off, you can imagine my feelings!

I think I must be the only person on the planet who never saw March of the Penguins.  I certainly wanted to, but somehow it never happened.  Until last night, when I caught the last half of it airing, fittingly, on the Weather Channel. 

Just viewing the scenes of Antarctica caused me to shiver in sympathy.  I hate cold, and especially ice–unless the ice is vaguely cube-shaped and floating in a beverage. 

Penguins are really one of the strangest looking creatures sharing our planet.  Today I read up on them a bit and here are a few of the unusual factoids I learned about them. 

• They can grow to be 4 feet tall, and males can weigh up to 99 pounds. 
• An Emperor penguin can dive up to 18 minutes at at time, to depths of 1,755 feet. 
• They have about 100 feathers per square inch.
• Alone among penguins, the Emperor penguin male is the only one of the parents to brood the egg until it hatches. 

A couple of things struck me while watching the movie.  One, when the chicks are finally large enough to emerge from underneath the parent’s feathers they are all fuzzy, which immediately made me think of my (now departed) Rottweiler.  It’s just one of those weird associative links the brain can make.  (Please tell me this kind of thing happens to you too.)  The connection is this:  when I got Hansel as a 5-week old puppy, he was…fuzzy all over.  He looked like a teddy bear, and only began to devolop the sleek, thick coat for which Rottweilers are known when he reached something like 6 months old. 

Emperor penguins learn to recognize their mates and chicks, and the chicks likewise recognize the parents, by unique vocalizations.  (The chicks make the cutest little cheeping, whistling sounds.)  This comes in handy when you’re returning from the sea and are faced with a big wad of penguins as far as the eye can see, who all look alike.  But there must be other clues as well.

In the most moving scene of the movie, a mother returns from feeding in the sea to find that her chick has died in a big storm.  She is prodding the dead chick with her beak as if to say “Wake up!”, and when it will not, the sounds she makes cannot be described in any other way except to say that she is keening, in what seems to be grief. 

Just in case you are the second person in the world who never saw the movie, here is the trailer, complete with very cute, fuzzy chicks. 

Few photos for the blog all taken by Susanna the doctor here at Halley.  Hopefully she doesn’t mind me using them!!  The pics show a little day trip to see the Emperor penguins at Windy Bay last Sunday.  Was the best I’ve seen them although quite a few chicks had been washed away to sea due to some of the sea ice having been blown out.  Chicks this small can’t swim unfortunately.

The rules about wildlife is that we cannot go any closer than 5 meters to them.  The great thing is that you don’t need to as they are very curious guys and they come to you.  You just need to stay still for a wee while and they begin to surround you.  Not good if you have a phobia of penguins coming to get you after watching Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘BIRDS’ as a kid.  Fortunately I don’t and no one else did either.

There will be a blog coming soon of some wonderful moving shots of these guys.  I even have some flying shots of them.  Well flying out of the water onto the sea ice or smacking into the side of it before falling back in the drink.

   Iata si ce scrie cel ce l-a postat pe youtube:

  Aceasta animatie  incepe in septembrie 2002 cand datele au inceput sa arate ca o incalzire majora avea loc in apa oceanului. In acelasi timp in care apa oceanelor incepuse sa se incalzeasca, troposfera a inceput sa se raceasca. Aceasta a insemnat topirea ghetarilor din anii 2002, 2003 , 2004 , 2005 , 2006 , 2007 si inceputurile anului 2008. La sfarsitul lui 2008 partea de jos a cazut intr-adevar si oceanele au inceput sa se comporte asa cum a facut troposfera cu ceva ani in urma. Gheata a inceput sa se topeasca  numai in Oceanul Arctic la inceput dar dupa aceea a inceput si in Antarctica, incheind cercul incarzirii, despre care atatia vorbesc ca a avut loc datorita incalzirii globale pricinuita de om si dovedind astfel ca clima este controlata de fapt de catre soare. Numai in 2 ani, am vazut gheata din Oceanul Arctic revenind aproape la acelasi nivel ca in anii 1970. Gheata din Oceanul Antarctic are aceeasi tendinta generala si se restabileste rapid pe masura ce inaintam din ce in ce mai repede intr-un secol al ciclului solar minim. Datele par a indica faptul ca aceasta activitate diminuata ar putea dura 40 de ani sau chiar mai mult. Astfel incat este posibil sa intram intr-o perioada similara cu cea a Epocii de Gheata. Lucrurile stau cam asa: Al Gore , ONU si administratia curenta a Statelor Unite nu au luat in considerare datele disponibile din ultimii 2 ani si se pare ca nu au inteles bazele fizicii. In schimb, politica lor se bazeaza pe ideologie, pe o stiinta care este depasita si pe date corupte. In acest moment, peste 30 000 de cercetatori afirma ca incalzirea globala NU este demonstrata stiintific si acest numar creste in fiecare zi, pe masura ce din ce in ce mai multe date sunt prezentate.

   Unicul motiv pentru a crea aceasta legslatie este pentru ca probabil, doar probabil ei stiu ca lucrurile se misca repede. Si daca nu reusesc acum sa realizeze legislatia dorita in domeniul climei stiu ca nu mai au nici o sansa in viitor deoarece gheata isi revine atat de repede. Guvernul si marile banci sunt falite si aceasta schema nu numai ca nu va dauna industriilor ramase in Statele Unite ci va lua si hrana de la gura copiilor nostri si va cauza dificultati tuturor familiilor din Statelle Unite ale Americii si este bazata pe orice altceva in afara de adevar. Cereti raspunsuri si cereti ca toate datele sa fie luate in considerare si fiti constienti ca pe masura ce schema incalzirii globale fabricata de ei se va termina, cu siguranta vor schimba tactica si modul de exprimare in legatura cu schimbarile climei. In acest moment nu se poate nega ca ne indreptam inspre o perioada de racire globala si cauza este in mod clar soarele, iar nu omul. Acum, cu siguranta nu este nimic in neregula cu inovatia si cu crearea unor noi tehnologii verzi mai ieftine pentru a ajuta America. Dar este foarte in neregula cu taxele impuse asupra sumelor pe care le muncim cu greu si care ajung la Guvern si la marile banci si pe Wall Street. Caci exact acestia sunt cei care au cauzat criza economica actuala. Chiar vrem sa stam deoparte si sa ii lasam sa mearga in continuare cu crearea taxelor de carbon din care marile banci si speculatorii de pe Wall Street vor profita din plin?
   Date preluate de la :
   Universitatea din Chicago
   Perioada de observare:  Septembrie 2000 – Iunie 2009
   A trebuit sa blochez comentariile din cauza tuturor mailurilor de ura primite de la sustinatorii lui Al Gore, care nu pot sa suporte adevarul. Datele postate in acest video sunt verificate din sursele mentionate si sunt adevarate si exacte. Voi, atatatorilor la razboi si maniacilor, ar fi bine sa va treziti pentru ca sunteti manipulati. Lor nu le pasa de mediu sau de cauza voastra. Le pasa numai de profitul pe care il pot obtine din aceasta schema. Marile banci si Wall Street profita de pe urma acestei scheme si noi, oamenii obisnuiti, nu vom mai hrani bestiile. Aceiasi oameni care au declansat criza economica sunt ultimii in care sa putem avea incredere. Daca doriti atat de tare ca aceasta legislatie sa fie votata, cereti ca nimeni sa nu profite de pe urma ei si veti vedea cat de putin le pasa de Pamant sau de mediu sau de voi. Totul este doar despre bani. Mai mult, orice alta amenintare cu moartea va fi raportata autoritatilor.

   Cititi va rog si:

Documentare celebre: „THE GREAT GLOBAL WARMING SWINDLE” (Marea escrocherie a incalzirii globale) – subtitrare in limba romana

Masurile impotriva schimbarii climei sunt gandite pentru a crea rapid GUVENUL MONDIAL al NOII ORDINI MONDIALE

According to a new study by scientists at the University of Texas, the East Antarctic ice sheet, once thought to be unaffected by global warming, is melting fast.  Estimates using satellite observations place ice loss in the East Antarctic at 5 to 109 gigatons per year from April 2002 to January 2009.  But, estimates also suggest that the rate of melt sped up after 2006.  This loss is seen most in coastal regions such as Wilkes Land and Victoria Land.  Previous estimates of the East Antarctic ice sheets ranged between a 4 gigaton per year loss and a 22 gigaton per year gain.

I’m sure most of you are familiar with these images that have been circulating the blogosphere:

First, let me point out that Al Gore has failed at proving that Global Warming exists. That’s like trying to prove that Santa exists. Sure, wouldn’t it be dandy? But facts are facts and fiction is fiction. So, what does a has-been politician do when his life’s work has been proven time and time again to be a fraud? Well, if this has-been politician is Al Gore; he resorts to Photoshopping “evidence”. I mean, Photoshop trumps science, right? Wrong. Sorry, Al. It doesn’t. Just like whining about pregnant chads doesn’t win an election. YES, we all remember your whiny ass complaining about pregnant chads and dimples on ballots.

In the images above you can clearly see that several massive hurricanes have been Photoshopped. It’s been proven that hurricanes are at a 30 year low. Here are some graphs I found at Watts Up With That:

Both Northern Hemisphere and South Hemisphere AND therefore overall Global hurricane activity has continued to sink to levels not seen since the 1970s. Even more astounding, when the Southern Hemisphere hurricane data is analyzed to create a global value, we see that Global Hurricane Energy has sunk to 30-year lows, at the least. Since hurricane intensity and detection data is problematic as one goes back in time, when reporting and observing practices were different than today, it is possible that we underestimated global hurricane energy during the 1970s.

Using a well-accepted metric called the Accumulated Cyclone Energy index or ACE for short (Bell and Chelliah 2006), which has been used by Klotzbach (2006) and Emanuel (2005) (PDI is analogous to ACE), and most recently by myself in Maue (2009) , simple analysis shows that 24-month running sums of global ACE or hurricane energy have plummeted to levels not seen in 30 years.

Why use 24-month running sums instead of simply yearly values? Since a primary driver of the Earth’s climate from year to year is the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) acts on time scales on the order of 2-7 years, and the fact that the bulk of the Southern Hemisphere hurricane season occurs from October – March, a reasonable interpretation of global hurricane activity requires a better metric than simply calendar year totals. The 24-month running sums is analogous to the idea of “what have you done for me lately”. During the past 6 months, extending back to October of 2008 when the Southern Hemisphere tropical season was gearing up, global ACE had crashed due to two consecutive years of well-below average Northern Hemisphere hurricane activity. To avoid confusion, I am not specifically addressing the North Atlantic, which was above normal in 2008 (in terms of ACE), but the hemisphere (and or globe) as a whole. The North Atlantic only represents a 1/10 to 1/8 of global hurricane energy output on average but deservedly so demands disproportionate media attention due to the devastating societal impacts of recent major hurricane landfalls.

Interesting, indeed. Visit Watts Up With That for more information. Unless you’re a liberal. From what I understand; you liberals aren’t all that interested in facts and information. But, it’s there if you ever decide to quit being morons.

If you look at the second image I posted; the one with the faux-hurricanes… you’ll notice that the Arctic has magically disappeared! Funny, since the Arctic ice is currently at the SAME levels as 1979. The good people at Daily Tech pointed this out.

(click to enlarge)

Rapid growth spurt leaves amount of ice at levels seen 29 years ago.

Thanks to a rapid rebound in recent months, global sea ice levels now equal those seen 29 years ago, when the year 1979 also drew to a close.

Visit Daily Tech for more information.

Also, NASA points out that the average temperature of the water near the top of the Earth’s oceans has significantly cooled since 2003. CLICK FOR NASA ARTICLE

BBC has found that we have not observed any increase in global temperatures for the last 11 years. Yes, that’s over ONE DECADE. CLICK FOR BBC ARTICLE

So… tell me… Why does Florida appear to be dissolving in Al Gore’s lame Photoshopped images? What the hell happened to CUBA? Last time I checked; Cuba still exists. Also; look at the SIZE of those faux-hurricanes. Anyone who actually believes this Global Warming bullshit simply WANTS to. There is no other conclusion.

Here’s something fun:
Letting Al Gore know we aren’t falling for his junk science, Portland, Oregon 11/18/09

Wake up, people. He’s cashing in and making BILLIONS off of easily influenced MORONS.

Or movies.

“The Antarctica Challenge: A Global Warning” is a documentary covering the recent scientific findings of the community stationed in Antarctica.  It has been invited by the United Nations to be screened at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, where it will be seen by world leaders. There is also a screening at the Princess Cinemas where it will be seen by me.

The screening at the Princess is tonight at 7:15. Tickets are $10.

In case you are thinking of purchasing the new global version of Amazon’s Kindle for Christmas, be aware that there are still quite a few places that the global version will NOT work.  I was disappointed to find that the new version still will not work in my country.

Apparently the new global version will only work in SOME countries.   I thought it would be helpful to most expats to have a complete list of which countries it will, or will not work in (below).

It’s also interesting to note the PATTERN of groups of countries where the Kindle doesn’t work–some countries probably lack satellite coverage or delivery systems, while others probably don’t WANT readers to be able to download whatever they want by satellite.

STARRED (*) countries marked below indicate that Kindle needs to be ordered from a SPECIAL PAGE on the Amazon site.

The Global Kindle version DOES work in (as of Dec. 2009):

Aland Islands, Albania, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Aruba, Australia*, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Boznia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Kenya, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Latvia, Liberia, Leichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Moldovia, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Mozembique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka,  Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands – British, Virgin Islands – U.S.,  Wallis and Futuna, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

The Global Kindle version does NOT work in (as of Dec. 2009) the following countries:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Antarctica, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chile, Chad, China, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, French Southern Territories, Gambia, Guinea, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Isle of Man, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea – Democratic People’s Republic of, Korea – Republic of, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco (including the Western Sahara), New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Pitcairn, Qatar, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Helena, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands, Sudan, Svalbard and Jan Mayan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tokelau, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United States Minor Outlying Islands, Uzbekistan,  Yemen.

More than 100 icebergs are approaching the south coast of New Zealand. The icebergs, which were first tracked 900 miles away, are now only approximately 200 miles away. The largest one is thought to be a third of a mile wide, 165 feet tall and with a total thickness of almost a quarter mile.

While the event is creating havoc for cruise and shipping lines, as well as fishermen, it’s a temporary boom for the tourism industry, with tourist flocking via helicopter rides to see the mammoth icebergs.

The event however, is short-lived, as the icebergs move into warmer waters, only the largest icebergs are thought to last 6 to 8 weeks.

Paul Nicklen, a National Geographic photographer, tells of his surprising encounters with a female leopard seal in Antarctica over the course of four days.

It’s bloody awesome.

WORD

sang-froid [Fr. sahN-fRwA] n.  coolness of mind; calmness; composure: They committed the robbery with complete sang-froid

BIRTHDAY

Andrew Carnegie (1835), Eddie Shore (1902), Joe DiMaggio (1914), Percy Sledge (1941), Ben Stein (1944), John Larroquette (1947), Amy Grant (1960), John F. Kennedy Jr. (1960), Mark Lanegan (1964), Christina Applegate (1971), Donovan McNabb (1976), Dolla (1987)

STANDPOINT

One of my greatest friends is Joe. I’ve mentioned him before. He’s someone special.

And he’s also kind of this blog’s watchdog. When I miss a day (or three), or post something subpar, Joe’s the first one to let me know, whether through a scathing comment on a particular post, a verbal tirade on GMail chat, or an obscenity-laden phone call. Most of these responses center on his annoyance with the fact I call this the daily euneJeune, and I’m not exactly stringent about the whole “daily” thing.

I love it. Because it comes from Joe and he’s one of the few people out there in the world who knows me very well, and wants to be my friend anyway.

Also, Joe and I have two things in common: (a) We’re able to drink more alcohol than any two people at any bar anywhere, and (b) We’re most likely the funniest people you’ll ever meet. And, no, the alcohol has nothing to do with why we think we’re a goddam riot. Although it doesn’t hurt.

In any case, Joe and I have this routine of exchanging late night texts, mainly because each of us know the other is most likely awake and not sober. 99% of the texts’ subject material has to do with movie quotes. And of that 99%, probably 98% deal directly with the obscure black comedy, Clifford, starring Charles Grodin and Martin Short.

As a tribute to my friend Joe, I offer the following video clip.

QUOTATION

I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart so long.  If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can play together all night. → Bill Watterson

TUNE

I’ve always loved the lyrics and music of Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” It came on yesterday at the perfect time. And, so, I now share it with you.

GALLIMAUFRY

→ As we all knew it would, Antarctica has declared war on New Zealand. Tired of living in the shadow of its more “tourist-friendly” neighbor, the frozen wasteland has launched hundreds of icebergs in a desperate attempt to get some headlines. Some experts are saying it’s not an attack at all and probably has something to do with global warming. Other experts are saying there’s too much ice in Antarctica and it’s natural to jettison some of the dead weight. The same experts also suggested people get off global warming’s back. However, all the experts agree the iceberg assault will have little effect on New Zealand, prompting a disheartened Antarctica to go back to the drawing board.

→ Finally, MTV makes a show I would actually watch  – about a squad of young Italian summertime renters at the Jersey shore – cleverly titled “Jersey Shore,” and wouldn’t you know it? There’s a group of Italian-Americans that wants to block it. Of course.

→ No new posts until Monday. What with the holiday and all. Also, be careful out there tonight. It’s the biggest bar night of the year. And drunk idiots make it suck pretty hard. Just take the following advice: Make sure to drive fast and take chances. OK. It’s not really advice.

“I’d like to see a calculation to show how long it would take for its miles-thick icepack to melt at 33 degrees F. Sea level increases wouldn’t matter because if you weren’t living closer to the poles you’d be dealing with 150-200 degree temperatures on the surface. I hear it’s gonna happen in five years or so.”
–Bunk Strutts, 20 October 2009.
_____________________________________________

Folks, this post was sitting around for a while, and I was about to delete it except for recent events regarding the AGW hoax debates.  If you haven’t been following, here are some links to bring you up to speed.

Soylent Green’s cbullitt posted the error data cluster from the AGW folks at East Anglia University’s world renowned Climate Research Unit.  (BTW, thanks for the hat tip cbull.)

The UK Telegraph chimes in on “Climategate.”

AJStrata has been debunking (gawd I hate that word) AGW for some time now.

Chris Horner of Watts Up With That has filed three NOIs:

“Today, on behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, I filed three Notices of Intent to File Suit against NASA and its Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), for those bodies’ refusal – for nearly three years – to provide documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act.”

Iowahawk dissects the situation. Don’t miss this one.

Even CBS (!?) seems to have gotten the story right. Lookee here.

AND IT’S ALL JUST IN TIME FOR COPENHAGEN! YAY!

[Image found here. Related post here. And here's our  Cache of Related AWG Snark.  Let's make Greenland green again!]

The Russian Icebreaker that was caught in Antarctic ice is now free.

The article is here.

I’m coming into the home stretch with the final gear I need and am now researching the clothing that will be next to my skin when I am out on the ice.  The guidelines that I’ve been told are not to wear any cotton and not to wear anything too tight.  So I’m in the market for fleece pants to wear under my windproof/waterproof shell pants, some sort of nylon or polyester underwear and long sleeve and short sleeve shirts.  R.E.I. sells a lot of good gear, as does Under Armour, so I’m narrowing down my choices each day and hope to have this wrapped up by the end of the week.

Then it’s on to the technical gear – cameras, batteries, binoculars, etc.

Two weeks to go!

Click here to check out the article that was published in the Ushuaian newspaper “El diario del fin del mundo”.

Finally that $30,000 student loan for that bit of paper I have that says I’m a “Marketing professional” has paid off. Yep, marketing myself, not yet a successful campaign, but a marketing campaign none the less.

One thing that I have learnt about what I’m doing ie trying to live my dream and get to Antarctica, is that you can’t be shy, you just have to put it out there, you can’t be worried about looking like a fool (something I do pretty well) or appearing arrogant, you can’t be bothered what other people think of you, you just have to do whatever it takes. And this is a little bit harder for us kiwis that got brought up with tall poppy syndrome. This is what we call in NZ when someone talks themselves up and they get cut back down to size, which is good because it makes a humble population, but the bad side is that it represses people to outwardly express their desires, ambitions and dreams.

My theme for my “campaign” is the more people that know about my goal, the more people can help me achieve it. And it is only going to take one person, just one person, it just takes being at the right place at the right time, and if I don’t knock on that port agents door, ask the sailor at the yacht club, or go and visit my cruise ship contact, I could miss being in that right place.

And also my good ol’ travel theme “you lose much by fearing to attempt”. Sometimes it gets a bit draining, going up to random people, giving them the spiel of what I’m trying to do, but I just say those phrases. And majority of the time it pays off, it’s surprising and warming how many people give you supportive feedback and are willing to help you.

You are always going to get the guy that looks at you with pessimistic eyes and thinks you’re a bit of weirdo. But he’s the kind of person that takes satisfaction in making people inferior, when the truth is the only joy that guys get is pretending he’s better and making other people unhappy, and kicking his dog when he gets home from work at night where he wallows in his negativity and enjoys the company of the ice clinking against the side of his whisky glass.

My uniform since I have arrived has been my t-shirt that says “I will do ANYtTHING to work in Antarctica”, my jacket that says the same, and I hand my business card out like they are candy. Putting it out there.

Last week the local newspaper (El diario del fin del mundo) here did an article on my goal and quest to get to Antarctica. So I have been going around other Antarctic related businesses, eg Port Agents, Fishing companies etc handing them my article and business card, talking to them about Antarctic work options etc. But it’s good to have an article that captures most of what I have done and is Spanish so they can read it quickly and summarises what I have done and what I want to do.

It was quite funny, the day the article got published in the paper a person came up to me on the street and said “I saw you on the internet”, I replied “oh yeah the article in El fin del mundo”, they are like “nah, theres 4 photos of you on the Kaitek night club website dancing around on the stage with the same t-shirt on”. Ummmmm, so it appears I have a double in town that looks the same as me with the same t-shirt

This is an exceptional video about a National Geographic contributing photographer’s experience in Antarctica. The photos are beautiful, and if he didn’t have them I don’t think I’d believe this.

Thanks Moira!

You decide.

The cool seal noises start at around 0:35. Personally, I hope they are alien Terminator robots. The Apocalypse has never been so cuuuuuute!

(via Zooillogix)

The East Antarctic ice sheet has been losing mass for the last three years, according to an analysis of data from a gravity-measuring satellite mission.

The biggest challenge to spending a winter at Greenland’s Summit Station isn’t the isolation, the dark, or even the cold. Rather the largest difficulty with living at and operating the station through the Winter Solstice and beyond is willing one’s fingers and brain to fire on all cylinders working outside in temperatures that range between -25ºC and -70ºC.

Life In The Far North

Check out the 2007 POLAR-PALOOZA video above with PFS’ Kathy Young for a good overview of life at Summit Camp during the summer. Although it was shot two years ago (before CH2M HILL purchased VECO), daily life remains remarkably similar.  Remove most of the people, the sunlight and knock the temperatures into the negative 20s and below, and you can imagine Summit in the winter.

This season’s five-person crew arrived Nov. 4 to operate Summit Station through the winter months, taking over for the five-person crew that tended the station after it closed for the season in late August. On Nov. 14, the team observed the last official sunrise/sunset until January 29, 2010.  They inhabit winterized buildings, share meal and housekeeping duties, and have about 300 movies to watch during downtime.

Game and movie room at Summit Camp's Big House. Photo: Karl Newyear

Clearly the team is there for much more than downtime. As manager Karl Newyear notes, they come for the self-reliance and the sense of adventure. ”It’s intriguing to me that humans can adapt to places as inhospitable to life as the top of the icecap,” he says.  But mostly they come because they’ve been hired to maintain the infrastructure needed to support almost 30 year-round science experiments housed at the station.

Meet The Crew

Mindng the Summit. The crew from left to right: Glenn Grant, Shane Brazzel, Karl Newyear (front), Katie Koster, Mark Melcon (aka Commander).

Fortunately, members of the experienced winter crew are well-suited to extreme temperatures. This rugged and hearty team brings collective polar experience to the job. Camp Manager Newyear spent 10 years as a marine projects coordinator in Antarctica. A logistics specialist with a Ph.D. in oceanography, Newyear lives in Parker, CO., when he’s not on ice.

"Business casual" means something different in Greenland. Karl Newyear in front of Summit Camp's Green House.

Mechanic Shane Brazzel comes to Greenland from Antarctica’s McMurdo Station, where he was a heavy equipment mechanic and on the construction crew. The dirt-bike-loving Californian works nine hours a day, seven days a week checking the generators, monitoring mechanical systems, operating and maintaining station vehicles (snowmobiles, Cat 933 track-loader, and Cat D-6 tractor), and making water by dumping buckets of snow into the melter.

Mark Melcon (aka Commander) is a polar legend with about 20 deployments to Antarctica, eight to Greenland, and one to Alaska. After spending last summer on the Summit construction crew, he’s back for the winter and maintaining his own personal brutal work schedule: rise at 4 a.m., begin working around 7:30 and average about nine hours a day.

Glenn Grant, science technician, is in Greenland for the first time after spending more than a decade in Antarctica. Since 1995, he has worked at Antarctic research stations at Palmer, McMurdo, and the South Pole, on both south polar research ships (Nathanel B. Palmer, Laurence M. Gould), and logged six winter seasons. When not in a polar region, he maintains residence in Port Townsend, WA, and works on other science projects, including some at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO, the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center, in the Bahamas, and aboard the NOAA research vessel RAINIER.

Glenn launches a weather balloon, one of the many responsibilities of the winter crew at Summit. Photo: Karl Newyear

Rounding out the team is NOAA science technician Katie Koster, who also spent her early fall working at Summit, thus adding an element of continuity and familiarity between the Phase I crew (which has scattered around the globe) and the current crew. Katie, a meteorologist, has observed weather at New Hampshire’s Mount Washington as well as at the South Pole (and she’s also a seasoned Summiteer, having worked the 2008 summer and phase I winter as well). An accomplished cyclist and runner, Katie also has been an ice hockey referee.

General Lifestyle

All in a day's work: Katie and Glenn head off to monitor science experiments for absent researchers. Photo: Karl Newyear

All adventurers, the self-selective staff in the far north say spending the winter in Greenland gives them the unique experiences of living in clean air without light pollution, having unrivaled views of the stars and aurora borealis.

With Internet access and routine communication with Polar Field Service staff  as well as colleagues in Kangerlussuaq, they aren’t entirely isolated. And despite the cold, they spend much of their time outside doing physical work. Those seeking an extra adrenaline rush can use one of the three spinning cycles, the rowing machine, free weights, or the rock-climbing practice board, and staffers have been known to strap cross-country skis (or snow kites) on.

Wind-affected snow surrounds Summit Camp in the winter. Photo: Bill McCormick

About Summit Camp

Located at the peak of the Greenland ice cap at 72°34′44.10″N 38°27′34.56″W. Summit is a scientific research station sponsored by the National Science Foundation, operated by CH2M Hill Polar Services (CPS) with research guidance from the Summit Science Coordination Office.

For all intents and purposes, I suppose we can declare our study of Antarctica, finished!

We ended up starting at this part of the world because my daughter wanted to know if anyone lived on Antarctica. My incredibly stupid response? Maybe some Eskimos?  I didn’t know.

What an idiotic answer! The only animal that survives on Antarctica during the winter is the Emperor Penguin, and it only does so in spurts. The male and female travel 70 plus miles into the Antarctic, mate, and then take turns feeding as they raise their young. They can’t survive on the Antarctic without going back into the ocean in turns. No human beings have made their home on Antarctica!!  I can’t believe our ignorant I was.

There are scientific researchers who stay in various research bases dotted around the Antarctic. But most of these are coastal. And most of the researchers come in the summer and leave by the winter – except those brave enough to film the Emperor Penguins through the winter, of course.

It’s an absolutely beautiful place and it is somewhat amazing that all of the nations of the world could come up with an International Treaty making it only available to those who want to use it for research, rather than military or political might. Wonder how long that treaty will last?

Also, an interesting question is how long the Emperor Penguins can keep up their ancient ritual of going inland to mate if the Antarctic is melting? It seems reasonable to assume that it is melting for natural reasons that would occur with or without human interaction. But what if human activities are adding to the already natural warming?  The problem is that all of this melting is creating more and more crevices where Emperor Penguins are found, dead.  The best they can do is huddle together for warmth as they slowly die.   Besides creating crevices, as the ice melts, the coastal boundaries we are used to will disappear. We could potentially lose New York, London, New Orleans, Miami, etc. Whole cities, gone, because the ice in Antarctica is melting.  Who would have thunk?  (I guess that’s the problem – we don’t think.  Well – at least I didn’t think.  I didn’t even know that there is no permanent human life on Antarctica! Now I know.)

Ok – so that’s my take on the study of the continent. Not sure what my daughter got out of it.  That will be up to her, of course.  But here is what we studied together:

Adams, Simon, Anita Ganeri, and Ann Kay. Geography of the World. New York: DK Publishing. 2006.

Ancient Mysteries. Landsat Images of Antarctica – Faces of Antarctica. NASA. n.d. Web. 11-20-2009.

Antarctica. Wikipedia. n.d. Web. 11-20-2009.

Life in the Freezer Hosted by David Attenborough. Series Producer Alastair Fothergill. British Broadcasting Corporation. 1993. DVD. 2005.

March of the Penguins. Dir. Luc Jacquet. Warner Independent Pictures. 2005. DVD. 2005.

Research Stations of Antarctica. Wikipedia. n.d. Web. 11-20-2009.

Warnings From the Ice.  Dir. Rob Gardner. NOVA. 1998.  DVD. 2008