i find this page extremely poignant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rivers_of_Antarctica
― ๐ ๐๐ข๐จ (caek), Friday, 9 February 2018 04:06 (six years ago) link
karl malone you should read the worst journey in the world
― ๐ ๐๐ข๐จ (caek), Friday, 9 February 2018 04:07 (six years ago) link
http://www.southpolestation.com/news/nicholas1.jpg
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/earshot/antarctica-big-dead-place/9662158
― ๐ ๐๐ข๐จ (caek), Saturday, 9 June 2018 20:18 (five years ago) link
via the best blog (but CW weirdly glib description of suicide)
http://www.southpolestation.com/news/news.html
Nicholas JohnsonA bit of iconic history, otherwise elsewhere described as the "WikiLeaks of Antarctica..." is the iconic book Big Dead Place. Author Nicholas Johnson, unfortunately, is no longer with us after he blew his brains out in 2012, but his work survives. And his work has now been given a new lease on life. On 30 April, ABC's program Earshot aired a 30-minute podcast/download which describes and details Nicholas's work, life, and the rest of his story. The interview and accompanying web pages include the voices and photos of several friends. Two ABC links of interest: this page gives basic information about the episode along with links for listening to or downloading the story...and this page gives additional background information as well as more photos. But that is not all. Nicholas' sister worked to get THE BIG DEAD PLACE WEBSITE back up to coincide with the release of this documentary. Have a look! Not everything is there, but there is a lot of the good stuff. The photo of Nicolas at left shows him at work in the McMurdo waste barn in about 2001...it's from Kathy Blumm and used by permission.
― ๐ ๐๐ข๐จ (caek), Saturday, 9 June 2018 20:20 (five years ago) link
great book; didn't know about the suicide (although it's . . . not exactly shocking)
― mookieproof, Saturday, 9 June 2018 20:24 (five years ago) link
(but CW weirdly glib description of suicide)
oddly, the place where i first learned about his death described it in the same way: http://feralhouse.com/nick-johnson-rip/maybe it was an inside joke, or perhaps just a way of addressing it that seemed in keeping with his style of writing. i'm not sure.
the earshot episode was good, although i didn't really like whoever was reading in the voice of nicholas johnson. reminded me of the old iron chefs with the english dubs
― obviously DLC (Karl Malone), Sunday, 10 June 2018 00:18 (five years ago) link
Thanks for the link. Weird personal trivia.... my copy of Big Dead Place has actually been to Antarctica. Haven't been there yet.
― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 10 June 2018 04:54 (five years ago) link
Thank you all for suggesting Big Dead Place. It's Rivethead... On Ice!
― pplains, Monday, 25 June 2018 03:04 (five years ago) link
good account https://twitter.com/HotWaterOnIce
― ๐ ๐๐ข๐จ (caek), Tuesday, 29 January 2019 23:35 (five years ago) link
https://twitter.com/SPtelescope is good too.
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 31 January 2019 06:17 (five years ago) link
if you read this thread you've probably already seen this, but just in case:
https://idlewords.com/2019/07/the_stranding_of_the_mv_shokalskiy.htm
― ๐ ๐๐ข๐จ (caek), Wednesday, 31 July 2019 21:39 (four years ago) link
that was excellent, thanks
― sleeve, Wednesday, 31 July 2019 22:28 (four years ago) link
Just finished Barry Lopezโ big memoir, โHorizonโ in which he kinda ties things up with a big section that takes place in Antarctica. Recommended and the other sections are cool too (Arctic, Australia, Galapagos and Rift Valley).
― tobo73, Thursday, 1 August 2019 00:15 (four years ago) link
"His memoir, with the unfortunately Dairy Queenish title Home of the Blizzard,"
i died
― cheese canopy (map), Thursday, 1 August 2019 00:27 (four years ago) link
good blog https://brr.fyi/
― ๐ ๐๐ข๐จ (caek), Sunday, 5 February 2023 16:45 (one year ago) link
My mom just got back. Her tl;dr was that it was a good trip but given the effort to get there nothing she would want to do again. She said the Drake Passage was just as terrible as everyone said, and that's basically a couple of days on either end of your limited visit to Antarctica proper, which she said was, besides cold, a lot windier than she expected. She was, however, impressed at how accessible the visit apparently is, however restricted the number of visitors (and cost) may be. Everyone from nonagenarians to Donna Shalala.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 5 February 2023 16:59 (one year ago) link
i just got done listening to _the worst journey in the world_. i had just given the book to a fellow outdoors person, and since my reading strength is not quite up to par since tbi, i figured iโd listen, to see how it went. it quickly sorta took me over. and there are long sections iโve relistened to. that is the most memorable and completely overwhelming book iโve experienced. i feel like i could discuss it for hours and not really hit a same topic twice. also a fantastic narration, at least to me.
― a single gunshot and polite applause (Hunt3r), Saturday, 13 January 2024 15:24 (two months ago) link
Was it Hugh Grant? (That may sound flippant but when he was just starting out getting roles in the 80s, he played Cherry-Garrard in the miniseries adaptation of The Last Place on Earth.)
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 13 January 2024 16:46 (two months ago) link
Somebody named Simon Vance, a name I do not recognize offhand.
― a single gunshot and polite applause (Hunt3r), Saturday, 13 January 2024 17:09 (two months ago) link
Ah, Vance! I've had the pleasure to meet him briefly after a talk he gave (with Guy Gavriel Kay, an author favorite of mine). I don't follow his recorded books work much but he has a massive, massive rep in the field, and he's a pleasant fellow. I'll have to pass that on to the folks I know who introduced me to his work.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 13 January 2024 17:23 (two months ago) link
the book is widely considered the best ever written about an antarctic expedition by one of the participants
― mark s, Saturday, 13 January 2024 17:28 (two months ago) link
ha ned that's wild. he is very very good. i expect most of the british accents of the original party were not too extremely far apart, but it is pretty clear when he is narrating say, scott's journal, rather than one of the seamen's, or even bowers's.
i've looked v briefly at readers commentaries. a couple of them complained of cherry-gerard's inclusion/melding of various participants' journals. i cannot disagree more, they are grafted in beautifully, are clearly distinguished, and add fantastic details. and this tale is one of almost innumerable details-- ones that blow my goddamn mind. amongst the many stories detailing the torturous lives of the ponies there is one in which one weakening pony has his hind quarters fall through the ice adjacent to a pod of taunting orcas the entire dilemma is just riveting.
― a single gunshot and polite applause (Hunt3r), Saturday, 13 January 2024 18:33 (two months ago) link
Simon Vance does audiobook work regularly, I think. He read the Stieg Larsson trilogy.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Saturday, 13 January 2024 21:15 (two months ago) link
He's done a lot of good books (which obviously excludes Larsson), and reads them really well.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Friday, 19 January 2024 08:47 (two months ago) link
the brr.fyi guy made it back home
― circles, Friday, 19 January 2024 11:35 (two months ago) link
"the many stories detailing the torturous lives of the ponies"
you get more of a sense of the character of Weary Willie than the humans at times, he's the only one sensibly saying fuck this nonsense, albeit through passive resistance. The passages from other fellow expeditionists journals definitely enhance the story. I can't remember whose journal it was, but there was a bit that made me chuckle that was butthurt at the positive advance of Amundsen's expedition party, and commenting that they have brought a good supply of potatoes with them he noted: "there must be a renegade Irishman amongst them".
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Friday, 19 January 2024 20:51 (two months ago) link
ac-gโs slow boil fury at bureaucracy in his egg delivery to british museum or whatever showed v some amusing restraint, eh.
― a single gunshot and polite applause (Hunt3r), Saturday, 20 January 2024 14:54 (two months ago) link
at least back the 1910's the explorer classes viewed orcas as the deadly predators they are, none of this anthropomorphic hippy shit about swimming with them, they knew that at times it only took one fateful misstep onto some fragile sea ice and they were lunch.
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Saturday, 20 January 2024 21:27 (two months ago) link
Vanceโs recitation of this parody poem really is a delight:THE PROTOPLASMIC CYCLEBig floes have little floes all around about โem, And all the yellow diatoms couldnโt do without โem.Forty million shrimplets feed upon the latter, And they make the penguin and the seals and whalesMuch fatter.Along comes the Orca and kills these down below, While up above the Afterguard attack them on the floe:And if a sailor tumbles in and stoves the mushy pack in, Heโs crumpled up between the floes, and so they get their whack in.Then thereโs no doubt he soon becomes a patent fertilizer, invigorating diatoms, although theyโre none the wiser,So the protoplasm passes on its never-ceasing round, Like a huge recurring decimal โฆ to which no end is found.From โThe Antarctic Exploration Anthology: The Personal Accounts of the Great Antarctic Explorers (Bybliotech Discovery Book 1)โ by Ernest Shackleton, Robert Falcon Scott, Roald Amundsen, Douglas Mawson, Apsley Cherry-Garrard)
― a single gunshot and polite applause (Hunt3r), Saturday, 20 January 2024 23:55 (two months ago) link